The head of Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, alias Otoniel, had two prices: the United States government offered US $ 5 million for information leading to his capture and the Colombian, about US $ 800. 000.
Despite this, the operation to put behind bars the most wanted drug trafficker boss in Colombia, boss of the powerful Gulf Clan, just finished this Saturday, after almost a decade of intense search.
Otoniel, from 50 years old, was arrested in the municipality of Necoclí, in northwestern Colombia, in a joint operation in which more than 300 uniformed of the Army, Air Force and National Police displaced in more than twenty helicopters.
“It is the hit It is the toughest drug trafficking has been inflicted in this century in our country. This blow is only comparable with the fall of Pablo Escobar in the years 90 ″, said the President of Colombia, Iván Duque.
Despite the fact that Escobar, the legendary head of the Medellín cartel, is by far the most famous drug lord in the world, Duque’s comparison does not look exaggerated, at least, from the point of view of the effort made by the Colombian government to capture them.
In 2015, the Colombian authorities began an operation to capture Otoniel in which about 1 participated. 200 troops belonging to the best prepared elite groups in the country, more than double the 500 that at the time came to be tracking Escobar.
“Alias Otoniel was the most feared drug trafficker in the world , murderer of policemen, soldiers, social leaders, recruiter of minors ”, said Duque.
Regarding the Clan del Golfo , Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano said this Saturday that in recent years it had become “the greatest threat” due to the fact that “the greater number of tons of coca that Colombia shipped to US markets and Europe was managed and articulated ”by this criminal organization.
According to the Colombian press, against Otoniel there is a red circular issued by Interpol for multiple homicide, multiple kidnapping and conspiracy to commit a crime, among other crimes. Furthermore, it is the subject of more than 120 judicial processes opened for all types of crimes.
A history of violence
Otoniel’s life can be seen as an accumulation of geological layers of the history of violence in Colombia in recent decades.
Born in Antioquia at the beginning of the decade of 70 and 19 years together with his brother, he joined the ranks of the disappeared guerrilla movement Popular Liberation Army (EPL).
Later, together with his brother Juan de Dios Úsuga David, alias “Giovanni”, he joined the FARC and later, in what seems like a turn of 180 degrees, to the paramilitaries of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
On 2005 that group demobilized (laid down their arms), but the brothers joined the ranks of the chief drug trafficker Daniel Rendón Herrera, alias “Don Mario”.
When this was captured in 2009, Otoniel and Giovanni were in charge of the organization.
Otoniel became the maximum leader when his brother died at the hands of the P olicía N acional during an assault on a “narco-party” at the end of the year, on January 1, 2012.
From family to cartel
Considered a great cartel, the Clan del Golfo was initially known as the Urabeñ os, by the Urabá region where it operates, although its tentacles extend to much of the country and beyond (members of the group have been captured in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Spain and Honduras).
At its core has been a family clan, the Úsuga , to which not only Otoniel and Giovanni have belonged but also several cousins and other close relatives.
For example, Francisco José Morelo Peñata, alias “El Negro Sarley” (killed in a police operation in April 2013), had a romantic relationship with one of Otoniel’s sisters, according to the police, and was the second in the organization after Giovanni’s death.
The person in charge of finances of g rupo was Otoniel’s partner , Blanca Senobia Madrid Benjumea, alias “La Flaca”, who was captured in 2015.
And who was pointed out by the police as the contact with the cartels Mexicans and the person in charge of managing the coordination of drug trafficking to Central America was a nephew of Otoniel and stepson of El Negro Sarley, Harlison Úsuga, alias “Pedro Arias”, also arrested in 2015.
Last August, The Colombian government authorized the extradition to the United States of Alexander Montoya Úsuga alias ‘El Flaco’, a cousin of Otoniel who had been captured in 2012 in Honduras.
The United States Department of Justice has described the Gulf Clan as “ one of the most important transnational organized crime organizations ” that threaten this country.
On the other hand, from e the times when they were known as the Urabeños, the Clan del Golfo has distributed pamphlets calling themselves as Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, which is considered by the Colombian press as a ruse to hide their true aims.
Permanent avoidance
Strong family ties, as well as his firm implantation in an area of Colombia that they know well are some of the reasons why it had been so difficult for the authorities to capture Otoniel.
In part that has to do with the close relationship of his family with Urabá.
They are natives of the region, which the clan members know well.
They know how to handle their land and have power over their population.
After Giovanni’s death, the clan decreed an armed strike that left the region stagnant for a couple of days.
But Otoniel had Also several tricks to evade their pursuers.
Among them, was the use of trained Creole dogs to give notice when someone strange is approaching , with enough time to escape.
In one of those escapes he had to leave behind one of those animals, a Colombian fine hound.
The policemen took him away, gave him Oto’s name and trained him and used him in the operation of 2015 to help them search for their former master, whose scent is makes it unmistakable.
In addition, according to the Colombian press, Otoniel does not use to technological devices such as cell phones to avoid being tracked, so he communicated with the members of his organization by sending voice messages that were distributed on recorders and USB sticks by human emails.
The fear of being captured also led him to constantly change the place where he spent his nights, usually in the jungle and, frequently, in huts of wood.
Those rural homes contrasted with the giant screen televisions, expensive drinks and luxury perfumes that the authorities used to find when they followed in his footsteps.
Another distinctive element of his lairs were some expensive special mattresses, which helped him to lessen the discomfort of a herniated disc.
Now that he has been arrested it is not clear whether he will be able to persuade the authorities to allow him to sleep on such a mattress in prison.
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