BOGOTA (Reuters) – Dairo Antonio Usuga, generally known as Otoniel, Colombia’s most wanted drug trafficker and chief of the Clan del Golfo, was captured on Saturday throughout an operation carried out by the nation’s armed forces, navy and police sources confirmed.
Colombia had provided a reward of as much as 3 billion pesos (about $800,000) for info regarding Otoniel’s whereabouts, whereas the U.S. authorities had put up a reward of $5 million for assist finding him.
After stints as a left-wing guerrilla and later paramilitary, Otoniel, 50, rose to change into the chief of the prison gang Clan del Golfo, or Gulf Clan, a drug trafficking group.
Clan del Golfo has round 1,200 armed males – the bulk former members of far-right paramilitaries – and is current in 10 of Colombia’s 32 provinces.
Colombian authorities launched Operation Agamemnon in 2016 as they labored to shut in on Otoniel, killing and capturing dozens of his lieutenants, going after his funds and forcing him to be consistently on the transfer, in accordance with the police.
In 2017 a video during which Otoniel introduced his intent to submit himself to justice was printed, however the plan by no means got here to fruition.
In March, Colombian police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Company captured https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-drugs-idUSKBN2BA2EL Otoniel’s sister, Nini Johana Usuga, who was extradited to the USA to face costs linked to drug trafficking and cash laundering.
In addition to drug trafficking, Clan del Golfo is concerned with unlawful mining, authorities say, whereas the federal government accuses the group of threatening and killing neighborhood leaders throughout the nation.
($1 = 3,780.38 Colombian pesos)
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin, Nelson Bocanegra and Luis Jaime Acosta; Enhancing by Richard Chang and David Gregorio)
