Colombian Drug Lord is Caught

 Colombia's most-wanted drug lord, Dairo Antonio Usuga, commonly known by his pen names, Otoniel, is caught by equipped forces in his forest hideout and faces extradition to the United States.

Usuga, 50, a previous left-wing guerrilla and later on a paramilitary competitor, is the alleged leader of the well-known drug-trafficking team Clan del Golfo, or Gulf Clan, which controls significant cocaine-smuggling routes through thick forests in the country's restive north.

Colombian Head of state Iván Duque compared Usuga's arrest Saturday to the catch of Pablo Escobar 3 years back. Escobar, known as "the Godfather," once rested in addition to the drug globe with tentacles getting to about the world.

"Otoniel was one of the most feared drug trafficker on the planet, awesome of authorities, of soldiers, of social leaders, and recruiter of children," Duque said throughout a program video clip message. "This strike is just comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s."

A policeman passed away throughout the procedure, Duque said, inning accordance with Reuters.

Usuga is implicated of sending out lots of shipments of drug to the United States. He is also implicated of killing policeman, hiring minors and sexually abusing children, to name a few criminal offenses, Duque said. The U.S. federal government had put up a benefit of $5 million for help locating him.

"Otoniel's catch is really important," said Daniel Mejía, a Colombian college teacher and expert on narco-trafficking. "He was the head of one of the most effective narco-trafficking framework in Colombia, the Gulf Clan, which holds domain name of a wide component of the area."

Experts are warning of feasible fierce consequences and interior power struggles as others scramble to take Usuga's place. After flying over the remote location where Usuga was caught, the country's protection priest, Diego Molano, vowed Sunday to proceed to take apart his bad guy network — and search down feasible successors as leader of the Gulf Clan.

"There's no place where criminal offense needs to conceal," Molano composed on Twitter.

Duque, in a video clip message posted Sunday, determined Jobanis de Jesús Ávila, describing him by his pen names, "Chiquito Malo," as among the suspects currently in the government's views as they look for to take down the Gulf Clan: "We are coming for you," Duque said. He was the clan's tools coordinator and Usuga's right-hand guy, inning accordance with local media records.

Usuga's arrest is not likely to change the basics of drug trafficking in Colombia, which experts say is a lot more fragmented currently compared to in the days when Escobar controlled the profession. Escobar transformed drug trafficking in the 1970s and 1980s, introducing large-scale shipments first to the United States, after that to Europe.

"This isn't mosting likely to move the needle in regards to the battle on drugs. … What happens next is various items of the challenge aligning to fill the vacuum of power left by Otoniel," said Sergio Guzmán, supervisor of the speaking with firm Colombia Risk Analysis. "Quickly we will have another kingpin and another drug lord that may be a lot even worse."

In its reward notice, the U.S. Bureau of Worldwide Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said Usuga's bad guy network used physical violence and scare tactics to control narcotics trafficking routes, drug processing labs, speedboat departure points and private touchdown strips. He set up procedures in the tactical Gulf of Uraba area in north Colombia, a significant drug passage bordered by the Pacific Sea on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the various other.

Usuga evaded catch for many years by moving in between safe locations in the remote forest area. Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, supervisor of Colombia's nationwide authorities, said Saturday that Usuga oversleeped harsh problems, rarely hanging out in homes, and ate on his favorite forest pets. Years of knowledge work, with assistance from the United States and Britain, eventually led Colombian unique forces soldiers to his forest hideout, Vargas said. Usuga moved with 8 rings of bodyguards.

Usuga's arrest is a win for Duque, a conservative whose law-and-order unsupported claims is no suit for skyrocketing manufacturing of drug. Duque said Saturday that there are extradition orders against Usuga which authorities will work to perform those orders while "learning all the reality about the rest of his criminal offenses in our nation." The protection priest informed the El Tiempo paper he will eventually be extradited to the United States.

Usuga was indicted in Manhattan government court in 2009 on narcotics import charges and for presumably providing assistance to a far-right paramilitary team assigned a terrorist company by the U.S. federal government. Later on charges in Brooklyn and Florida implicated him of worldwide drug circulation dating as far back as 2002, conspiracy to murder rival drug traffickers and drug-related guns offenses.