The manhunt has ended. Colombia’s most wanted drug trafficker, Dario Antonio Usuga David, alias Otoniel, 49, was arrested by law enforcement on Saturday, October 23, on the Caribbean coast in the northwest of the country. More than 300 men and 22 helicopters were mobilized for the final phase of the operation carried out jointly by the Colombian army, navy and police. Photos and videos of his arrest were released in the early afternoon. Surrounded by soldiers, Mr. Usuga appears in a black T-shirt and plastic boots, handcuffed and strangely smiling before boarding the helicopter for Bogota.
At the head of the “Gulf clan”, Colombia’s most powerful mafia organization, Mr. Usuga is accused of having exported dozens of tons of cocaine. He is also wanted for homicides, arms trafficking, population displacement, recruitment of minors and sex crimes. Otoniel is the subject of 122 arrest warrants, six convictions and two extradition requests, according to the prosecution. The United States offered a reward of 5 million dollars (4.3 million euros) for the capture of this peasant son who had become a great criminal, the Colombian authorities, 3 billion pesos (682,000 euros). Bogota will probably only be a step for Mr. Usuga, who is expected to end his days in an American prison.
President Ivan Duque congratulated the military on this operation, described as “Biggest blow to drug trafficking since the turn of the century”. He compared Otoniel’s arrest to the death of notorious drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, murdered by the armed forces in 1993. “The capture of Otoniel represents a victory for the state against the main threat facing Colombia, namely drug trafficking”, said Defense Minister Diego Molano. Colombia is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine.
A long hunt
But Otoniel, as important as he is in the Mafia hierarchy, has never achieved the media fame of Pablo Escobar in his country. The country only discovered his face in 2017. On the occasion of a visit by the Pope, the drug trafficker released a video on that date to let it be known that he wished to engage in peace negotiations with the government, in like the great guerrilla forces of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which had just laid down their arms. The government of Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018), then in power, did not follow up on the proposal.
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