At least six soldiers were killed and five others injured in northwestern Colombia in a bomb attack attributed to drug traffickers from the Clan del Golfo, whose leader, Otoniel, has been imprisoned since October. announced the army on Wednesday April 20.
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“Units of the 4th Brigade were attacked with explosives while on the moveTuesday around midnight in the commune of Frontino, in the department of Antioquia (Northwest), the army said in a statement.
One last soldier still wanted
“Unfortunately we confirm the assassination of six of our soldiers“and five injured”who were evacuated by airto a hospital, the statement added, adding that a search is underway to find a missing soldier.
On local radio station Blu Radio, General Juvenal Diaz accused the Clan del Golfo, the country’s most powerful drug trafficking gang, of being behind the attack. Members of the Clan installed “an improvised explosive device“and blew it up”when one of the vehicles passes“military,” he said.
Constant attacks on law enforcement
According to authorities, the department of Antioquia serves as a corridor for the transport of cocaine from the Colombian Pacific coast to Panama and then to the United States. It was in this region that the leader of the Clan del Golfo, Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias Otoniel, was captured in 2021. Since his arrest, members of the gang have carried out constant attacks on law enforcement.
The Colombian government recently gave its approval to the extradition of Otoniel to the United States where the justice accuses him of drug trafficking. The extradition of the man who was for a long time the most wanted drug trafficker in the country could take place in the coming weeks.
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Before the fall of its leader, the Clan del Golfo exported about 300 tons of cocaine, out of the thousand that leaves Colombia each year, the largest producer and exporter of this drug in the world, according to official figures.