Las 2 Orillas, April 6, 2022
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
Daíro Antonio Úsuga David, alias Otoniel, will finally be extradited to the United States, to answer to its courts for drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy, and carrying illegal weapons. He could be sentenced to between 20 and 30 years in prison. That was the conclusion of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Branch. Although the boss of the Clan del Golfo had started to sing to the Truth Commission and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)—where he was not accepted—he revealed the names of the members of the military with whom his criminal gang had been connected, he could not avoid his destiny: a gringo prison.
High-ranking officers of the Colombian Army in Casanare and Meta were among the names the drug lord had revealed. The most affected was Leonardo Barrera Gordilla, to whom Otoniel attributed murders, massacres, and disappearances, along with General Henry William Torres Escalante. Orlando Rivas Tovar, former director of the DAS[1] in Casanare was among the officials mentioned by Otoniel.
Even though we don’t yet know in which gringo prison Otoniel will end up, three courts have requested his extradition. Among them are the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, so any one of those may be the place where he will be passing the coming years.
[1] DAS was Colombia’s Administrative Department of Security, dissolved in 2012.