Colombia has announced that the country’s most wanted drug trafficker will be extradited to the US after he was captured in a raid.
Dairo Antonio Úsuga, known as Otoniel, was seized after a joint army, air force and police operation on Saturday.
He led the country’s largest criminal gang and has been on the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s most wanted list for years.
US officials had placed a five million US dollar bounty on his head especially after accusing him of importing at least 73 metric tonnes of cocaine into the country between 2003 and 2014.
Colombia’s Defence Minister Diego Molano told El Tiempo newspaper that the next step for officials was to comply with the US extradition order.
Authorities have now taken Otoniel to a military base in the capital Bogotá ahead of his extradition, according to newspaper El Nuevo Siglo.
President Iván Duque hailed the drug lord’s capture in a televised video message. END
