The captured leader of the Colombian gang Clan del Golfo, Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias “Otoniel”, was sentenced on Tuesday to 45 years in prison in US federal court in New York for drug trafficking.
Extradited by Colombia in May 2022, he pleaded guilty in January 2023 to international cocaine trafficking, admitting to having brought more than 96 tons of cocaine into the United States via Central America and Mexico.
Judge Dora Irizarry of federal court in Brooklyn, New York, followed the prosecutor’s submissions, saying it was “without a doubt one of the most serious drug trafficking cases” ever before this court. .
Otoniel, 51, faced a sentence ranging from 20 years in prison to life. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison on each of the counts but will benefit from a confusion of sentences and will therefore serve 45 years in total.
He also accepted a $216 million forfeiture judgment in January.
Prosecutor Francisco Navarro considered that Otoniel was, without a doubt, “the most dangerous terrorist in Colombia of this century”, as much as Pablo Escobar, emblematic figure of drug trafficking.
US Justice Minister Merrick Garland welcomed the conviction in a statement from his office.
“This sentence sends a clear message that the Department of Justice will find and hold to account the leaders of murderous drug trafficking organizations who harm the American people, wherever they are and however long it takes. “, he assured.
The defendant admitted in January that in the context of “military work, murders were committed” by his organization, made up of former members of far-right paramilitary groups and which could have counted up to 6,000 men.
He also said that the clan “provided security for laboratories and drug traffickers and levied taxes” for cocaine transiting through territories under their control.
The defense, which had asked for a maximum sentence of 25 years, did not say whether it wanted to appeal. She has 14 days to decide.
Seven months after his arrest in Colombia, the extradition of Otoniel, who had ruled the organization since 2012, was followed by a bloody campaign of assassinations against police officers in his country.
But after the election of left-wing president Gustavo Petro, in favor of negotiations with several armed groups, Otoniel had asked his gang in August 2022 to put an end to this wave of murders.
Also seated in the dock were Sinaloa cartel number 1 Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, sentenced to life imprisonment, and Daniel Rendon Herrera, known as “Don Mario”, founder and former leader of the Clan del Golfo sentenced to life. 35 years in prison.
According to the DEA, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, the Clan del Golfo collaborated with the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels to smuggle drugs into the United States.
According to the agency, 90% of the drugs entering the US market come from Colombia and are often laced with fentanyl, a powerful and deadly substance added by Mexican cartels.
“He must pay where he committed his crimes. If Otoniel is Colombian (…) he must pay to the Colombian authorities. But what he committed here, he cannot pay it in the United States”, has deplored Aurelio Benicio Mendoza, president of an association of families of “CDG” victims in the Uraba region (north-west), where the cartel operates.
08/09/2023 11:25:19 – New York (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
