Bogota: Colombian President Ivan Duque has signed the extradition papers for the head of the criminal organisation Clan del Golfo (Gulf Clan), Dairo Antonio Usuga, also known as “Otoniel”, considered the country’s most wanted drug lord.
“I have just signed the extradition of … ‘Otoniel’, the worst drug trafficker and criminal in Colombia’s recent history,” Duque said on Twitter on Friday.
“The country’s institutions are showing their strength and firmness.”
The country’s Supreme Court of Justice approved his extradition on drug trafficking charges this week, several months after US authorities made the request, reports Xinhua news agency.
His defense team had been fighting the extradition order.
But on March 25, Defence Minister Diego Molano said the drug lord’s case was not accepted by Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, rejecting his lawyers’ arguments that their client should be tried by the tribunal instead of being extradited.
In October 2021, authorities captured “Otoniel” in a jungle area in Uraba, a region in the northwest Colombian department of Antioquia.
–IANS
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