BROOKLYN (CN) — Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, the ex-kingpin who led some 6,000 cartel members in a Colombia-based drug operation, was sentenced to 45 years in prison and ordered to pay $216 million dollars on Tuesday by a federal judge in New York.
"Otoniel," as the 51-year-old former leader of Clan del Golfo is nicknamed, pleaded guilty in January to trafficking nearly 107 tons of cocaine, much of it into the United States, from 2009 until his 2021 extradition to the United States.
The plea agreement covered three drug counts, two out of federal districts in New York and one in Florida. Charges were first unsealed in the Eastern District of New York in May 2022.
“Otoniel led one of the largest cocaine trafficking organizations in the world, where he directed the exportation of massive amounts of cocaine to the United States and ordered the ruthless execution of Colombian law enforcement, military officials, and civilians,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press release Tuesday announcing the sentencing.
It took a seven-year manhunt to nab Úsuga David, who evaded capture with the help of a network of safe houses, and by avoiding cellphones in favor of couriers, U.S. officials said.
Following his extradition, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace described Úsuga David as “one of the most dangerous, most wanted drug kingpins in the world," a man "to whom murder was meaningless and violence the ultimate currency.”
The government said it seized tons of cocaine linked to the Clan del Golfo from boats off the coast of Panama in 2021, as well as from a boat within a jungle region of Colombia.
In addition to directly exporting cocaine, the cartel allegedly made money by taxing other drug traffickers per kilogram for substances made, stored and transported through areas under its control.
Investigators say the cartel kept control with a network of sicarios, or hitmen, who were employed to kidnap, murder, assault or torture competitors, traitors and their family members. Cartel members also targeted Colombian law enforcement and military personnel with Plan Pistolas, campaigns involving grenades, explosives and assault rifles.
“The human misery caused by the defendant’s incredibly violent, vengeful, and bloody reign as leader of the Clan de Golfo drug trafficking organization may never be fully calculated due to its magnitude, but today’s lengthy sentence delivers appropriate justice and sends a message to other paramilitary and cartel leaders that the United States will seek their arrest and extradition in order to hold them accountable in our courts of law," Peace said Tuesday.
Úsuga David admitted he oversaw operations pushing 96,856 kilos of cocaine into Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico, and ultimately into the United States, during his January plea hearing.
“I agreed to and directed others to provide security to narcotics traffickers,” Úsuga David said, noting that the Clan del Golfo “charged a set fee for every kilogram that was moved, stored or transported in areas controlled by the group.”
Before accepting the plea, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro asked Úsuga David to confirm that members of the group were responsible for killings as a result of those crimes.
“Homicides were committed, yes,” Úsuga David responded through a translator.
Prosecutors did not seek a life sentence for Úsuga David.
Following the plea hearing his attorney Paul Nalven said while his client doesn’t make excuses for his actions, he was first involved in cartel activity as a “child soldier,” roped in at the age of 16 along with his brother.
“Our client is really a child of the culture of violence in Colombia,” Nalven said following the hearing. “It was kind of the law of the jungle. Be inducted … or be killed.”
Nalven did not immediately return a request for comment on the sentencing.
The vast majority of the cocaine in the United States comes from Colombia, officials say, and may flow through groups like the Sinaloa cartel, where it is mixed with powdered fentanyl, creating a deadly combination that substance users may not be aware they’re even receiving.
Fentanyl is responsible for a growing number of deaths in the United States. The drug accounts for most of the synthetic opioid category that caused more than 70,000 overdose deaths in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Follow @NinaPullano
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
