The announcement of the Colombian president, Wednesday evening, was triumphant.
"I want to inform that Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias Otoniel, has been extradited," said Iván Duque.
Chief of the Clan del Golfo, Otoniel, the biggest drug trafficker in Colombia, is now in the United States where he is claimed by a court in New York.
On Wednesday, "legality, the rule of law, public force and justice triumph", welcomed the Colombian leader.
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For Iván Duque, "this criminal of the worst kind (...) can only be compared to Pablo Escobar", the co-founder of the infamous Medellín Cartel, shot dead by the police in 1993. Otoniel, he says, is the " most dangerous drug trafficker in the world, murderer of social leaders and policemen, rapist of children and adolescents”.
Much attention: acaban de sacar a "Otoniel" of the installations of the DIJIN in Bogotá.
Al parecer, a pesar de la orden del @consejodeestado lo van a extraditar ✍ @NoticiasUno pic.twitter.com/ZYZN0sMtfh
— Victor Ballestas TV.
(@victorballestas) May 4, 2022
Otoniel, 50, was arrested on October 23 in northwestern Colombia during a major military operation.
He has been prosecuted for drug trafficking since 2009 in a New York court and his head was priced at $ 5 million by the United States.
On Wednesday, imposing armored vehicles, escorted by heavily armed police, transferred him to Bogota airport.
Author of "crimes against humanity" according to families of victims
Relatives of Otoniel's victims had requested a "suspension" of the extradition, believing that this procedure would "abstract from justice a paramilitary leader who has committed crimes against humanity in our country".
They invoked their right to know the truth and to receive reparations.
But Colombian justice finally gave the green light to his extradition.
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Once his sentence has been served in the United States, the head of the Clan del Golfo "will return to Colombia to pay for all his crimes committed in our country", assured Iván Duque.
The latter "thanked" the Supreme Court, the Council of State as well as the JEP - a special jurisdiction investigating the armed conflict in Colombia - "for having avoided the intentional manipulations of this criminal to try to avoid this extradition".
The detention under close surveillance in Bogota of the drug lord was marked by several incidents and controversies.
Recordings of his testimony before the Truth Commission, the body that investigates human rights violations during the armed conflict in Colombia until the signing of the 2016 peace agreement, have been stolen by unknown persons.
Colombian police also interrupted a hearing for "Otoniel", saying they suspected an escape attempt.
Se hizo lo correcto.
Otoniel extradited to USA.
👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/h5lKy9pzuS
— Luis Carlos Vélez 🌎 (@lcvelez) May 4, 2022
"Who's afraid of Otoniel," headlined the independent online media Cambio, saying some wanted to silence the drug trafficker, who allegedly said during his hearings that the army continued to work in complicity with far-right paramilitaries. in some parts of the country.
300 tonnes of cocaine exported per year
According to the press, citing a JEP document, "Otoniel" allegedly implicated 63 people, allegedly linked to the Golfo Clan, including a former minister, a former national director of the intelligence services, six former governors and four former members of the Parliament.
According to his lawyers, the drug baron also claimed to have organized his surrender.
Read alsoSombra, the anti-drug dog threatened by the Otoniel gang in Colombia
Coming from a peasant family in northwestern Colombia, Dairo Antonio Usuga was a far-left guerrilla, then a far-right paramilitary before heading a drug trafficking organization about 1 million strong. 600 men, who exported an average of nearly 300 tons of cocaine each year to around 30 countries, according to the authorities.
He succeeded at the head of the Clan del Golfo to his brother, Juan de Dios known as "Giovanni", killed by the police in 2012.
In five decades of war on drugs supported by the United States, Colombia has killed or captured several drug lords, the best known to the general public being Pablo Escobar to whom a television series has been dedicated.
But the country remains the world's largest producer of cocaine and the United States the main market, while violence linked to trafficking continues.