Colombia Captures Most Wanted Drug Lord With 22 Helicopters And 500 Police Officers (PHOTOS)

In a forest invasion involving 500 police officers and 22 helicopters, Dairo Antonio Usuga, Columbia’s most dangerous drug lord has been apprehended.

Colombian authorities said on Saturday that Dairo Antonio Usuga, the country’s top cocaine trafficker, had been apprehended.

Usuga, also known as “Otoniel,” is the suspected boss of the clandestine Clan Del Golfo cartel, which controlled major cocaine smuggling routes through the jungles.

Colombian President Ivan Duque likened Saturday’s arrest to that of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was murdered in a police gunfight in 1993.

Duque said: “This the hardest blow… to drug trafficking this century in our country,” Duque said.

“Alias Otoniel was the most feared drug lord in the world, a murderer of police, soldiers and local activists, the biggest penetration of the jungle ever seen in the military history of our country,”

Other cartel members were warned to turn themselves in or “experience the full force of the law,” according to Duque.

Usuga is implicated of drug trafficking, homicide, extortion, kidnapping, conspiracy, and illegal recruitment of minors, among other offenses. He was on the most wanted list of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

In 2009, the US State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million (€4.29 million) for information that led to his capture or conviction. The arrest data were also shared with US and British officials.

Source; Ghgossip.com