NEW YORK – A Colombian drug lord who is believed to control the “largest and most powerful cocaine trafficking and paramilitary organization in Colombia” was extradited to the U.S. Thursday, federal prosecutors told ABC News.
Dairo Usuga, who is also known as Otoniel, faces multiple charges and will be prosecuted in New York.
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He was flown from Colombia to John F. Kennedy International Airport Thursday before making his first appearance in federal court later in the day in Brooklyn.
According to ABC News, Usuga is accused “of overseeing the production, purchase and transfer of cocaine shipments from Colombia and Mexico into the U.S.,” spanning the course of many years.
He was arrested last October in his home country at the request of the U.S.
“Prior to his capture by the Colombian National Police, the defendant was the principal leader of a transnational criminal organization known as the Clan del Golfo (”CDG”), the largest and most powerful cocaine trafficking and paramilitary organization in Colombia,” prosecutors said in a March court filing. “In furtherance of its drug trafficking activities, the CDG, at the direction of the defendant, also engaged in repeated acts of violence, including murders, assaults, kidnappings, torture and assassinations against Colombian law enforcement officers, Colombian military personnel, rival drug traffickers and paramilitaries, potential witnesses and civilians.”
Usuga is charged with supervising and managing a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution conspiracy and use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Prior to his arrest in Colombia, the U.S. had offered a $5 million reward for his capture.