Colombian authorities hand over alias “Otoniel” to the DEA 2:30 (CNN Spanish) — Dairo Antonio Úsuga was one of the most wanted men in Colombia until his capture in October 2021. Known as alias ‘Otoniel’, this drug trafficker began to commit crimes from an early age, and President Iván Duque even compared him to drug lord Pablo Escobar. After a series of legal intricacies, and the claim of the victims of drug trafficking who ask for truth and reparation in Colombia, this Wednesday ‘Otoniel’ was extradited to the United States. “Otoniel was the most feared drug trafficker in the world, murderer of police, military, social leaders and recruiter of minors,” Duque said earlier, adding that his capture was “the biggest blow to drug trafficking in the country in decades.” Now, Úsuga must answer for drug and arms trafficking in a court in the Southern District of Florida. ‘Otoniel’, 50, has a criminal record as long as his life, since he began to commit guerrilla crimes when he was still a teenager, according to the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office After years of monitoring, he was captured by Colombian authorities last year during an operation in the department of Antioquia in an area near the border with Panama, the Prosecutor’s Office reported in 2021. After his capture, he was taken into custody by the Police in the intelligence department under strict security measures. On April 7, the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia approved his extradition. The next day, Duque signed the extradition that had been stopped by defending him. After a measure that his lawyers had requested so that he would not be extradited and the request of the victims to answer for the crimes in Colombia, ‘Otoniel’ was handed over to DEA agents at the CATAM military airport in Bogotá on May 4th. This is what we know about ‘Othniel’. Iván Duque on the extradition of “Otoniel”: we comply with Colombia 0:42 The crimes of which ‘Otoniel’ is accused Diario Antonio Úsuga has committed almost his entire life. At the age of 16, he joined the ranks of the People’s Popular Army (EPL) guerrilla and demobilized in 1991. Later he formed his own criminal group called Bernardo Franco and later became part of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), according to the prosecution. After the demobilization of the paramilitaries between 2003 and 2006 under the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, the criminal organization Los Urabeños was created in 2007, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. The name is due to the presence of the criminal gang in the Urabá region of Antioquia and Chocó, in the west of the country. This criminal group was eventually called the Clan del Golfo, which was initially led by his brother, Juan De Dios Úsuga, alias Giovanni, who died in Chocó, in the Colombian Pacific, in January 2012, according to InSight Crime. ‘Otoniel’ has 122 arrest warrants (the Presidency reports that there are 128), 7 security measures, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. He is accused of several crimes such as homicide, illegal recruitment, conspiracy to commit a crime, kidnapping for ransom, terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and drug trafficking. He also has 6 sentences in force, including 40 and 50 years in prison for aggravated homicide, homicide of a protected person, forced disappearance, forced displacement, illegal recruitment of minors, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. From the moment of his arrest, Úsuga has pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, a guarantee judge at the time endorsed the request of the Prosecutor’s Office to keep him behind bars and he was placed in the custody of the Police in the intelligence department under strict security measures. “This bandit was a murderer of social leaders, a recruiter of minors, a rapist of boys, girls and adolescents. He was known in the region for looking for girls of 12, 13 or 14 years old and intimidated families and extorted them in order to have the virginity of his daughters,” Duque said of Úsuga when announcing his capture. In the United States, Úsuga also has pending crimes and two arrest warrants for extradition purposes: one from 2015 by the District Court for the Southern District of Florida for drug trafficking and another from the Eastern District Court of New York, also from 2015, for “the crime of participating in a continued criminal enterprise and narcotics crimes,” according to the Prosecutor’s Office. In 2009 he was indicted by the Southern District of New York. The US State Department offered up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction, while Colombia offered a reward of up to 3 billion Colombian pesos (about $800,000) for information on his whereabouts, Reuters reported. . Duque decorated the soldiers who participated in the capture of alias ‘Otoniel’, in a ceremony at the Carepa military base, on October 24, 2021. (Credit: DANIEL MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images) The Gulf Clan Cartel Clan del Golfo controls almost half of the drugs that leave Colombia and they are considered, according to the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (PARES), as the most powerful criminal organization in the country. After the death of his brother alias ‘Giovanni’, ‘Otoniel’ took over as the leader of the Clan del Golfo Cartel, which the US State Department describes as “heavily armed and extremely violent.” He became the leader after stints as a leftist guerrilla and paramilitary, according to Reuters. The Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, said after his capture that this organization “extracted a high number of tons of cocaine” to markets in Europe and the United States, and had become the articulator of the “micro-trafficking” business in cities in the northwestern part of the country. country but also sought its expansion towards regions such as the eastern plains, in the east of Colombia. The cartel is made up of former members of terrorist organizations, according to the State Department, and uses violence and intimidation to control drug trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points and clandestine landing strips. The intricate structure of the Clan del Golfo has extended its domains to a large part of Colombia, using, among other things, extortion mechanisms and the millionaire income generated by the illegal activities they concentrate, such as mining and drug trafficking. By May 2017, the Colombian Ministry of Defense estimated that 1,800 members made up its ranks, less than half of the 4,000 that came to house in 2009, when they had their greatest peak. Who is the most wanted drug trafficker in Colombia? (Video from 2015) A “third generation” group Currently, according to Colombian armed conflict analyst and expert Ariel Ávila, the Clan del Golfo is present in just over 200 municipalities in northwestern Colombia, in the Urabá regions of Antioquia and Chocoano and in the lower Cauca area. It is, according to Ávila, who was deputy director of PARES, a “third generation” criminal group, that is, “a highly decentralized organization.” In the case of the Clan del Golfo there were five central commands, another 51 regional commands and each regional faction with an army”. First-generation criminal groups are those with a pyramidal structure, such as drug cartels. And second-generation groups are those that impose the armed structure on top of the economic one, such as the Paramilitaries in Colombia and the demobilized explained Ávila. The Clan del Golfo works in a network, made up of units with well-defined territories and functions and with leaders who can be easily replaced, according to PARES. It is made up of paramilitary structures, criminal organizations and so-called “partners.” who work alongside the “board of directors” of the organization.Their main source of financing comes from drug trafficking, where they work together with the Cartel l of Sinaloa and its rival, the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Additionally, they receive millionaire income from illegal mining and the practice of extortion. In October 2018, the then United States Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, included the Gulf Clan in the list of the main transnational criminal organizations that pose a threat to the United States. Along with him, his two partners: the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, as well as MS-13 and Hezbollah from Lebanon. The end of the Gulf Clan? President Duque said at the time of his capture that “the Gulf Clan is sentenced to its end”, and that this operation marks “a turning point” in the fight against drug trafficking: “Operation Osiris will be remembered as the largest action against drug trafficking in this century in our country”. Ávila said at the time of Otoniel’s capture that it was a favorable blow of opinion for Duque in the midst of a security crisis in the country in which he has seen the increase in homicides in the country, massacres and assassinations of social leaders. . “This is a break for President Iván Duque in the midst of the security crisis,” says Ávila. But on the other hand, according to the analyst, it is not possible to speak of the end of this criminal structure, because as it is a decentralized organization and without a single leadership, “capturing one or killing one, is a major blow but it does not change much business.” The next thing that could happen in the area of influence of the Gulf Clan is that there is a war between subordinates to see who stays with the power of ‘Otoniel’, or that local alliances or local disputes occur to reaffirm the leadership of those subordinates, therefore, “concentrated casualties” occur in some areas of the country and “there is a dispersion” of the criminals. However, Duque warned that the armed forces will continue their work against drug trafficking and that now they go by alias ‘Chiquito Malo’ and alias ‘Siopas’, “the other bandit pimp of ‘Otoniel'”. This text was originally published in October 2021 and was updated in May 2022. — With information from Fernando Ramos of CNN en Español in Colombia and Abel Alvarado from Atlanta.
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