Colombia’s most wanted drug lord arrested by military after eluding capture for more than a decade

Colombia’s most wanted drug trafficker has finally been captured by security forces after evading arrest for more than a decade.

Dairo Antonio Usuga David, known by his alias Otoniel, is accused of sending dozens of shipments of cocaine to the United States and orchestrating a ruthless drugs empire, killing police officers, recruiting minors, and sexually abusing children among other crimes.

He was arrested on Saturday in the Uraba region of Colombia when a military force of over 500 soldiers descended on his jungle hideout, marking the culmination of a decade-long manhunt dubbed operation ‘Osiris’.

Colombian President Ivan Duque likened the arrest of Otoniel, 50, to the capture three decades ago of Pablo Escobar, given that the drug lord managed to evade authorities and retain his freedom for over 10 years.

 ‘This is the biggest blow against drug trafficking in our country this century,’ Duque said during a broadcast video message. ‘This blow is only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.’ 

Colombia’s military presented Otoniel to the media on Saturday evening bound handcuffs and wearing rubber boots preferred by rural farmers, and he has since been transported to Bogota to await trial.

Otoniel is the alleged head of the much-feared Gulf Clan, whose army of assassins has terrorised much of northern Colombia to gain control of major cocaine smuggling routes through thick jungles north to Central America and onto the US.

The Gulf Clan has around 1,200 armed men – the majority former members of far-right paramilitary groups – and is present in 10 of Colombia’s 32 provinces.

As well as drug trafficking, the clan is involved with illegal mining according to authorities, and stands accuses of threatening and killing community leaders across the country.

Though Duque said Otoniel’s capture represented the end of clan, Colombia Risk Analysis director Sergio Guzman said a new leader would surely be waiting to take over.

‘It’s a big deal because he’s the biggest drug kingpin in Colombia,’ Guzman said, adding that the capture would not change the fundamentals of drug trafficking.

‘Otoniel is bound to be replaced.’

The drug lord has long been a fixture on the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted fugitives list, with the organisation offering a $5 million (£3.63 million) reward for his capture. 

He was first indicted in 2009, in Manhattan federal court, on narcotics charges and for allegedly providing assistance to a far-right paramilitary group designated a terrorist organisation by the US government, but has eluded capture ever since amid a growing list of heinous crimes.

Informants and a network of rural safe houses he supposedly moved among every night allowed Otoniel to escape years of pursuit by the Colombian military.

As he defied authorities, his legend as a bandit grew alongside the horror stories told by Colombian authorities of the many underage women he and his cohorts are said to have sexually abused.

But the constant battle for freedom took its toll on the 50-year-old fugitive, who even while on the run insisted on sleeping on orthopedic mattresses to ease a back injury.

Authorities said intelligence provided by the US and UK led more than 500 soldiers and members of Colombia’s special forces to Otoniel’s jungle hideout, which was protected by ‘eight rings of security’.

One police officer died during what was otherwise a highly successful operation, Duque said. 

His arrest is something of a boost for the conservative President, whose law-and-order rhetoric has been no match for soaring production of cocaine.

Land dedicated to the production of coca — the raw ingredient of cocaine — jumped 16% last year to a level unseen in two decades of US eradication efforts, according to a White House report.