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On Wednesday, January 25, 51-year-old Colombian drug kingpin Dairo Antonio Usuga pleaded guilty to smuggling charges in a New York court.
Fox reported that Dairo Antonio Usuga, also known as Otoniel, admitted to having led the Gulf Clan, a neo-paramilitary drug trafficking organization based in Antioquia, Colombia.
CBC reported that while Dairo Antonio Usuga had been wanted by Colombian authorities since 2011 for drug trafficking and multiple homicides, the search efforts intensified after the US Department of State offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Subsequently, Colombian authorities also began to offer $5 million. The Colombian government also offered an additional $800,000 bounty for his capture.
In October 2021, Usuga was arrested from a hideout in Uraba, Antioquia. On May 4, he was extradited to the US.
Dairo Antonio Usuga is known to be the most violent Colombian narcotics trafficker since Pablo Escobar
Yahoo reported that Dairo Antonio Usuga was born on September 15, 1971, in Necocli, Colombia. Raised in a peasant family, at the age of 18, Usuga joined the leftist paramilitary group the Popular Liberation Army, which was involved in an insurgency against the Colombian government.
In the early 90's, after the Popular Liberation Army signed a peace agreement, Usuga joined the United Self-Defences of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group that was steeped in the cocaine trade. In 2005, he shifted allegiance once more to the Gulf Clan, a paramilitary that had a reputation as the country's largest drug cartel.
By 2009, Usuga had risen up the ranks of the Gulf Cartel, emerging as its leader. According to prosecutors, in his capacity as the head of the organization, Usuga ordered drug trafficking, as well as murders, bombings, and guerrilla-style attacks on police officials and criminal rivals.
Usuga admitted in court:
"Tons of cocaine were moved with my permission or at my direction."
He continued:
“There was a lot of violence with the guerillas and the criminal gangs (..) in military work, homicides were committed."
Usuga added that in the aftermath of his arrest, he had ordered his men to stop attacking the police. Defense lawyer Paul Nalven claimed that the drug lord implemented this "ceasefire" hoping for a "better Colombia."
In an official statement, Brooklyn attorney Breon Peace claimed that Usuga had become the largest cartel figure in Colombia.
Peace said:
"With today’s guilty plea, the bloody reign of the most violent and significant Colombian narcotics trafficker since Pablo Escobar is over."
Peace continued:
"Úsuga David has now been held accountable for his leadership of the Clan del Golfo, which was responsible for trafficking tons of illegal narcotics from Colombia to the United States and incalculable acts of violence against law enforcement, military personnel, and civilians in Colombia and elsewhere."
The Guardian reported that if convicted, the drug lord could receive decades in prison.
