‘The most dangerous drug trafficker in the world’ claims he is INNOCENT in New York

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Colombian drug lord Dairo Antonio ‘Otoniel’ Úsuga pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges during his first court appearance before a federal judge in New York on Thursday.

Úsuga, the leader of the notorious Gulf Clan cartel, did not ask the judge for a bail package during his arraignment hearing and asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon to keep him detained until his trial.

The 50-year-old is due back in court June 2. 

The charges against Otoniel should send a clear message to the leaders of drug cartels around the world,’ DEA administrator Anne Milgram said during a press conference Thursday afternoon before Úsuga appeared in court.

‘If you traffic deadly poison; if you use violence and fear to gain power; if you target law enforcement; if you destabilized countries for your profit; and if you run a drug cartel that harms the safety, health and security of the American people, then the Drug Enforcement Administration will stop at nothing to bring you to justice.’

Úsuga was turned over to Drug Enforcement Agents in the South American nation’s capital of Bogotá on Wednesday and was flown to John F. Kennedy International Airport where he arrived at 11:30 pm and was immediately transferred to a jail cell.

Considered the most powerful capo in Colombia dating back to Pablo Escobar, Úsuga is accused by the United States Department of Justice for allegedly trafficking at least 90,000 kilos of cocaine, worth about $2billion in the streets of the U.S. from 2003 to October 2022, DEA administrator Anne Milgram said during a press conference Thursday.

The 50-year-old, who was arrested in the shore city of Necoclí near Panama in October 2021, was accused Colombian authorities for the deaths of hundreds of members of the country’s security forces.

As many as 90 suspected cartel members were also apprehended following Úsuga’s capture, prompting Colombian President Iván Duque to proclaim the ‘end’ of the Gulf Clan.

However, four Colombian soldiers were killed in attacks blamed on the gang just days after Úsuga’s arrest.

The Gulf Clan was believed to be responsible for 30 percent of cocaine exports from Colombia, the world’s largest producer and supplier of the drug.

Formally known as the Los Urabeños and Clan Úsuga, the Gulf Clan is a neo-paramilitary group, in addition to being a drug cartel.

It is currently involved in the on-going Colombian armed conflict, having first appeared after the demobilization of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

‘I want to reveal that Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias ‘Otoniel’ has been extradited,’ Duque said on Twitter, calling him ‘the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world.’

Duque described Úsuga as a ‘murderer of social leaders and police, an abuser of boys, girls and teenagers.’

‘Today legality, the rule of law, the security forces and justice triumphed,’ he added.

On Wednesday afternoon, a convoy of five bulletproof police vehicles transported Úsuga from a prison in Bogotá to a military airport, where he was handed over to the DEA.

Perhaps knowing that his days as the country’s most powerful drug trafficker were finally over, Úsuga’s eyes watered up as he sat between security force members in the back of a vehicle, video released by the Colombia National Police showed.

‘His face said it all, not happy to be visiting this great city. He walked off the jet as a defeated man,’ said Ricky Patel, the Homeland Security Investigations acting special agent in New York. ‘To the individual who attempts to take over as leader of the (Gulf Clan) cartel, know this, we have a jail cell waiting for you right next to Otoniel and you’ve been warned.’

His arrest was one of the biggest blows to Colombia’s drug trafficking business since the assassination of Escobar in 1993.

Úsuga was indicted in 2009 in the US, which had offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to his arrest.

Authorities say he is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of members of Colombia’s security forces.

Following Úsuga’s arrest and that of another 90 suspected gang members, Duque declared the ‘end’ of the Gulf Clan.

But four Colombian soldiers were killed in attacks blamed on the gang just days after Usuga’s arrest.

The Gulf Clan was believed to be responsible for 30 percent of cocaine exports from Colombia, the world’s largest producer and supplier of the drug.

Formally known as the Los Urabeños and Clan Úsuga, the Gulf Clan is a neo-paramilitary group, in addition to being a drug cartel.

It is currently involved in the on-going Colombian armed conflict, having first appeared after the demobilization of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

In 2011, the clan declared war on the Los Rastrojos – a rival cartel – for control over the drug trade in Medellin, and in the decade that followed has grown into the most powerful criminal organization in the country.

It is believed to have some 3,000 members within its inner organizational circle.

Since his capture, Úsuga had been held in a high-security prison in Bogota, and was at the heart of multiple controversies.

Recordings of testimony Úsuga gave to the Truth Commission – an extrajudicial body investigating the decades-long conflict between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – were stolen, the perpetrators unknown.

Colombian police also halted one of Úsuga’s Truth Commission hearings, saying the Gulf Clan had organized an escape attempt.

‘Who is afraid of Otoniel?’ read a headline on Cambio, an independent online news outlet, which claimed that some people in the Colombian government sought to silence the drug lord.

The site reported Úsuga would have said during his hearings that the army continued to work in complicity with right-wing paramilitaries in some parts of the country.

Citing a leaked Truth Commission document, the outlet said Úsuga had implicated 63 people as linked to the Gulf Clan, including a former minister, a former national director of intelligence, six former governors and four former members of parliament.

Family members of Úsuga’s victims had asked for the courts to suspend his extradition, arguing he should stand trial in Colombia for ‘crimes against humanity.’

‘They did not respect the feelings of the victims,’ said Marina Sanmiguel, whose husband was killed in a 1997 paramilitary raid.

Úsuga ‘could be a key person to clarify what really happened,’ she said.

But the Colombian justice system ultimately gave the green light for his extradition, Úsuga’s defense team said.

Duque vowed Úsuga would still face justice in Colombia.

‘This criminal was extradited to serve drug trafficking sentences in the United States,’ the president said.

‘But I want to be clear that once those are served, he will return to Colombia to pay for the crimes committed against our country.’

After his capture, claimed to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal that he handed himself in.

The JEP was created under a 2016 peace deal with the now demobilized FARC rebel group to try former combatants and members of the military.

Úsuga’s lawyers argued against his extradition, saying he should be allowed to testify before the JEP, confess his role in Colombia’s nearly six decades of internal conflict and reveal links between the military and illegal armed groups.

The conflict has killed at least 260,000 people.