Colombia extradited the alleged head of the scary Gulf Clan, who had been the nation's most needed drug lord earlier than his seize, to the USA Wednesday the place he faces indictments in three federal courts.
Colombian President Iván Duque mentioned Dairo Antonio Úsuga David is "comparable solely to Pablo Escobar," referring to the late former head of the Medellin drug cartel.
"He isn't solely probably the most harmful drug trafficker on this planet, however he's assassin of social leaders, abuser of boys, ladies and adolescents, a assassin of policemen," Duque mentioned accompanied by Colombia's army leaders whom he congratulated for guarding Úsuga David and capturing him in October 2021.
He was seized at his hideout in an operation involving tons of of troopers. The U.S. had positioned a $5 million bounty on his head.
The previous rural warlord, higher identified by his alias Otoniel, had stayed on the run for greater than a decade by corrupting state officers and aligning himself with combatants on the left and proper. He was transferred Wednesday in handcuffs and carrying a helmet and a bulletproof vest from a jail in Bogotá to a closely guarded army transport air area.
He is lengthy been a fixture on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted listing. He was first indicted in 2009, in Manhattan federal courtroom, on narcotics fees and for allegedly offering help to a far-right paramilitary group designated a terrorist group by the U.S. authorities. Later indictments in Brooklyn and Miami federal courts accused him of importing into the U.S. at the very least 73 metric tons of cocaine between 2003 and 2014 by way of international locations together with Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Honduras.
Úsuga David's additionally cycled by way of the ranks of a number of guerrilla teams, most just lately claiming to steer the Gaitanist Self Protection Forces of Colombia, after a mid-Twentieth century Colombian leftist firebrand.
The Colombian authorities started the capo's extradition after the State Council lifted a provisional suspension of an order by Duque endorsing the transfer. The excessive courtroom dismissed a petition from a bunch of Úsuga David's victims who argued that his extradition would violate their rights to justice and reparation. They needed him to first face the greater than 128 proceedings towards him in Colombia. .
Duque mentioned that from the USA, Úsuga would proceed collaborating with the Colombian authorities within the investigations towards him and as soon as he completes his sentences for drug trafficking, he'll return to "Colombia to pay for the crimes he dedicated."
The Gulf Clan's military of assassins terrorized a lot of northern Colombia to achieve management of main cocaine smuggling routes by way of thick jungles north to Central America and onto the U.S.
In line with the U.S. State Division, the Gulf Clan "makes use of violence and intimidation to regulate the narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure factors, and clandestine touchdown strips."
"The group operates in 13 of Colombia's 32 departments, most of that are within the northwestern a part of the nation," the State Division mentioned. "Throughout a turf warfare with a rival felony group for drug trafficking routes, homicides shot up 443% over two years."
As he defied authorities for years, his legend as a bandit grew alongside the horror tales instructed by Colombian authorities of the various underage ladies he and his cohorts allegedly abused sexually.
