Almost like Escobar. Colombia’s most wanted drug lord caught in jungle

Colombia’s armed forces have detained the country’s most wanted drug lord, who has been in hiding for more than 10 years, Dairo Antonio Usugu, aka Otoniel. He had a jungle cache that had eight safety rings.

Reported by The Guardian.

More than 500 military and special forces, more than 20 helicopters and 10 unmanned aerial vehicles took part in the special operation. The servicemen blocked the rivers and roads. During the capture of the gangster, one police officer was killed.

Colombian President Ivan Duque compared the detention of Otoniel to the arrest of another Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar.

“This is the biggest blow to the drug business in our country this century. This blow can only be compared with the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s,” Said Duke.

Who is Otoniel and what is he suspected of?

• Usugu is considered to be the head of the Clan del Golfo, or Gulf Clan, which is involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining. He was a member of a guerrilla and paramilitary group.
• The clan includes approximately 1,200 armed men, most of them former members of the far-right paramilitaries. The group is located in 10 of Colombia’s 32 provinces and oversees major jungle smuggling routes to Central America and the United States.
• Otoniel is accused of sending dozens of cocaine consignments to the United States via Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Honduras; the murder of police officers, the recruitment of minors and the sexual abuse of children.
• The drug lord was the most wanted criminal in Colombia. Law enforcement officers offered $ 800,000 for information on his whereabouts, and the US – $ 5 million for help in finding Otoniel.

We previously reported that the founder of the foreign drug empire, who escaped from the SBU, was extradited to Israel.

Also recall in the USA, the sons of the drug lord Korotyshki were charged in absentia with drug trafficking.