Colombian drug lord ‘Otoniel’ pleads not responsible in US courtroom

One of Colombia’s most infamous drug lords pleaded not responsible to cocaine trafficking expenses in a New York courtroom Thursday following his extradition to the United States.

Dairo Antonio Usuga, often known as “Otoniel,” didn’t ask for bail throughout the arraignment listening to in Brooklyn.

The 50-year-old was the chief of Colombia’s largest narco-trafficking gang, often known as the Gulf Clan.

The United States accuses Usuga and the Gulf Clan of illegally bringing a minimum of 73 tons of cocaine into the nation between 2003 and 2012.

He was “one of the most dangerous, most wanted drug kingpins in the world,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York advised reporters Thursday.

Peace described Usuga because the “supreme leader” of the Gulf Clan.

“He is responsible for trafficking vast amounts of cocaine, measured in tons. He earned enormous profits measured in billions, not millions,” the prosecutor advised a press convention.

Usuga was probably the most wished individual in Colombia till he was arrested final October within the northwest of the nation after a large army operation.

On Wednesday afternoon, a convoy of 5 bulletproof police automobiles transported him from a jail within the capital Bogota to a army airport, the place he was handed over to US Drug Enforcement Administration officers.

Usuga landed in New York round 11:30 pm (0330 GMT Thursday).

He wore orange jail garb and was handcuffed throughout his first look within the Brooklyn federal courtroom.

Usuga has been charged with felony enterprise and worldwide cocaine manufacturing and distribution and faces life in jail if convicted.

He requested to be held in detention till his trial, and decide Vera Scanlon set a date of June 2 for the defendant’s subsequent courtroom look.

Usuga’s arrest was one of many largest blows to Colombia’s drug trafficking enterprise for the reason that assassination of Pablo Escobar in 1993.

He was captured close to the border with Panama following a army operation involving 500 troopers backed by 22 helicopters, wherein one police officer was killed.

Usuga was indicted in 2009 within the United States, which had provided a $5 million bounty for info resulting in his arrest.

‘El Chapo’

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

New York prosecutors have secured the extradition and conviction of a number of traffickers in recent times, most notably Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

He was sentenced to life in jail in July 2019 and is being held in a maximum-security jail in Colorado.

Last month, Ex-Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez appeared in courtroom in New York following his extradition to America to face drug trafficking expenses.

Hernandez is accused of aiding the smuggling of a whole lot of tons of cocaine to America in return for thousands and thousands of {dollars} in bribes from drug-traffickers.

His brother, ex-congressman Tony Hernandez, was given a life sentence within the United States in March 2021 for drug trafficking crimes.