The official narrative goes as follows. On 23 October, Columbia’s most-wanted drug trafficker, Dairo Antonio Úsuga, known as ‘Otoniel’, the leader of the Clan del Golfo or the Gulf cartel, was captured by the country’s military in an operation that had been planned for more than five years.
Other sources suggest that Otoniel was offered a plea bargain in exchange for extradition to the US and a reduced sentence for collaborating with the justice system. Comparisons are being drawn to Pablo Escobar, leader of the powerful Medellín drug cartel that dominated cocaine trafficking in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Who is Otoniel?
Well, he’s no Escobar. For one, he’s not as well known outside Colombia. At 50, Otoniel is relatively young to be one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world. He suffers from health conditions such as high blood pressure, a kidney problem and diabetes, and he needs daily medical attention. Before his capture, Otoniel paid large sums of money to the doctors who visited him in the network of rural safe houses he used to evade the authorities.
