Colombia captures most wanted drug lord in jungle raid after decade-long manhunt
- Dairo Antonio Usuga is the alleged head of the Gulf Clan, whose army of assassins is control of major cocaine smuggling routes to Central America and the US
- He’s long been a fixture on the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted fugitives list, for whose capture it had been offering a US$5 million reward
Colombian security forces have captured the country’s most-wanted drug trafficker, a rural warlord who stayed on the run for more than a decade by corrupting state officials and aligning himself with combatants on the left and right.
President Iván Duque likened the arrest Saturday of Dairo Antonio Úsuga David to the capture three decades ago of Pablo Escobar.
Colombia’s military presented Úsuga to the media in handcuffs and wearing rubber boots preferred by rural farmers.
Úsuga, better known by his alias Otoniel, is the alleged head of the much-feared Gulf Clan, whose army of assassins has terrorised much of northern Colombia to gain control of major cocaine smuggling routes through thick jungles north to Central America and onto the US.
He’s long been a fixture on the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted fugitives list, for whose capture it had been offering a US$5 million reward.