Colombia’s biggest drug trafficker, ‘Otoniel’, pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn to international cocaine trafficking charges pending after his extradition to the United States. He faces life in prison.
Dairo Antonio Usuga David, alias Otoniel, 50, was notably charged with directing a criminal enterprise between June 2003 and October 2021 and with international association of criminals to manufacture and distribute cocaine with the intention of illegally exporting to the United States, said the Brooklyn federal prosecutor.
The Gulf Clan leader appeared handcuffed and dressed in the orange jumpsuit of American detainees. The federal judge decided to place him in pre-trial detention, which he did not contest on Thursday. The next hearing has been set for June 2.
New Escobar
During a press conference which took place shortly before the hearing, the prosecutor referred to ‘one of the most dangerous and wanted drug kingpins in the world’, echoing the Colombian President, Ivan Duque, who Wednesday compared him to Pablo Escobar, the founder of the Medellin cartel shot dead by police in 1993.
‘Otoniel’ was arrested on October 23 in northwestern Colombia during a large military operation. He has been prosecuted for drug trafficking since 2009 in a New York court. His head was priced at 5 million dollars by the United States.
American justice considers that he was the “supreme leader” from 2012 to 2021 of the Gulf clan, a criminal organization that could have counted up to 6,000 men depending on the period and controlling part of the coastal department of Antioquia.
To control this territory, “he oversaw an army of henchmen who murdered, kidnapped and tortured victims, including members of the Colombian police and army”, accused the prosecutor.
According to the indictment, between 2003 and 2021 “his clan attempted to export more than 90,000 kg of cocaine to the United States”, underlined the boss of the DEA, Anne Milgram, or 2 billion dollars. of value when sold on the street.
/ATS
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