The Gulf Clan leader faces extradition toward united states of america

Colombia?s most-wanted medicine lord, Dairo Antonio Usuga, well regarded by his alias, Otoniel, has-been seized by armed forces within his forest hideout and face extradition to your U . S ..

Usuga, 50, an old left-wing guerrilla and soon after a paramilitary fighter, will be the so-called frontrunner for the notorious drug-trafficking class Clan del Golfo, or Gulf Clan, which reigns over big cocaine-smuggling routes through thick jungles in the country?s restive north.

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Colombian chairman Ivan Duque compared Usuga?s arrest Saturday for the catch of Pablo Escobar three years in the past. Escobar, named ?the Godfather,? when seated on top of the medication community with tentacles reaching world wide.

?Otoniel had been probably the most feared medicine trafficker in the field, killer of authorities, of soldiers, of personal management, and employer of kids,? Duque mentioned during a broadcast movie message. ?This blow is much like nov Pablo Escobar inside 1990s.?

a police passed away during process, Duque mentioned, based on Reuters.

Usuga try accused of delivering a large number of shipments of cocaine to your U . S .. They are additionally implicated of eliminating law enforcement officers, recruiting minors and sexually abusing girls and boys, among various other criminal activities, Duque mentioned. The U.S. authorities got put up a reward of $5 million for assist locating him.

?Otoniel?s capture is really crucial,? said Daniel Mejia, a Colombian university teacher and professional on narco-trafficking. ?he had been the pinnacle of the very most powerful narco-trafficking construction in Colombia, the Gulf Clan, which retains site of a broad area of the region.?

Experts were caution of feasible aggressive consequences and interior electricity fight as rest jostle to get Usuga?s location. After traveling on top of the remote area where Usuga is captured, the country?s safety minister, Diego Molano, vowed Sunday to keep to dismantle their violent network ? and look for feasible successors as chief of the Gulf Clan.

?There isn’t any location in which crime needs to hide,? Molano blogged on Twitter.

Duque, in a video information uploaded Sunday, recognized Jobanis de Jesus Avila, talking about your by his alias, ?Chiquito Malo,? as one of the suspects today for the government?s views as they seek to defeat the Gulf Clan: ?We are arriving for your needs,? Duque mentioned. He was the clan?s tools organizer and Usuga?s right-hand man, in accordance with regional media reports.

Usuga?s arrest is actually unlikely to change the basics of medication trafficking in Colombia, which professionals state is more fragmented now than in the times when Escobar reigned over the trade. Escobar revolutionized cocaine trafficking from inside the 70s and 1980s, pioneering large-scale deliveries very first towards the United States, after that to Europe.

?This won’t go the needle in terms of the war on medications. ? what goes on next differs pieces of the problem aligning to complete the cleaner of electricity leftover by Otoniel,? said Sergio Guzman, movie director on the asking firm Colombia chances comparison. ?Soon we?ll have actually another kingpin and another drug lord which are much worse.?

Within the incentive notice, the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and police Affairs said Usuga?s violent circle used assault and intimidation to regulate narcotics trafficking paths, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points and clandestine landing pieces. He put up surgery in strategic Gulf of Uraba region in north Colombia, an important medication passageway surrounded by the Pacific sea on a single part and the Caribbean water on the other side.

Usuga evaded capture for a long time by going between secure places inside the remote jungle part. Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, director of Colombia?s nationwide police, stated Saturday that Usuga slept in crude conditions, seldom hanging out in houses, and dined on his best forest creatures. Many years of intelligence efforts, with the help of america and Britain, fundamentally led Colombian unique causes troops to his jungle hideout, Vargas said. Usuga relocated about with eight rings of bodyguards.

Usuga?s arrest try an earn for Duque, a conservative whoever law-and-order rhetoric has-been no complement for soaring creation of cocaine. Duque mentioned Saturday that we now have extradition commands against Usuga and that regulators will be able to work to undertake those commands while ?learning all of the reality concerning the rest of their crimes inside our country.? The safety minister advised the El Tiempo newspaper he can in the long run end up being extradited into the usa.