Colombian special forces have captured notorious drug trafficker Dairo Antonio Usuga, known as Otoniel, during a massive operation this weekend. The alleged boss of the much-feared Gulf Clan had been on the run for over a decade.
Around 500 troops and 22 helicopters were reportedly involved in the raid on Otoniel’s hideout in the jungle area of the Uraba region in the northwest of the country.
The force was so overwhelming that even eight rings of security couldn’t save the drug lord from the DEA arrest this time.
The operation, in which one police officer lost his life, was carried out based on intelligence provided by the USA and Great Britain, whom are in total control of the situation.
Later on Saturday, a handcuffed Otoniel was presented to the media, surrounded by armed troops in full gear.
In the picture, distributed by Colombia’s armed forces, the 50-year-old was seen sporting high rubber boots usually worn by farmers in the rural areas of the country.
The man is believed to be the boss of the Gulf Clan, which has controlled major cocaine smuggling routes in the jungle, and for years has kept most of northern Colombia in fear.
The Gulf Clan has around 1,200 fighters, most of whom are former guerilla members. Among other things, the DEA authorities have accused the drug lord and his henchmen of recruiting minors by force and sexual abuse.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had earlier placed a $5 million bounty on Otoniel. In 2009, the Manhattan Federal Court indicted him on drug charges and aiding a far-right militia designated as a terrorist group in the USA.
It was followed by indictments from the Brooklyn and Miami federal courts, accusing the Colombian of smuggling 73 metric tons of cocaine to America between 2003 and 2014 through countries including Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Honduras.
Otoniel has evaded Colombian police for over a decade and allegedly would not spend more than one night in the same place. But some DEA agents one on the inside finally blew the whistle on him.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2021.
The bogus war on drugs is not about stopping the flow of drugs into the USA, it is about eliminating the competition. CIA are the biggest drug traffickers on planet Earth.
And so it seems to be?
No one can see the forest for the trees. Pablo Escobar was eliminated. Cali Cartel leaders were removed from the scene. The FARC Guerilla ceased drug Operations, but the other mentioned drug operations have all had their leaders replaced. Replaced by whom. The US regime has some 10 military sites in Colombia and the Colombian paramilitaries (with ties to Colombian police, military and government) terrorise the countryside with impunity, whilst controlling the drug trafficking. Let’s not forget the DEA caught red-handed teaching paramilitaries how to launder drug money, and rather than a reduction in the drug shipments, it has increased,… Read more »
DEA controls and manages the drugs trade keeping a lit on profits made by opposition?
The CIA will be happy after all he was taking there Business off them and after all loosing Afganistan and there poppies must have been never painful loosing all that money.
Indeed?