Colombia's 'Otoniel': From Peasant To Feared Drug Lord

Bogota, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Oct, 2021 ) :The chief of the biggest drug gang in the world's top cocaine producer, Dario Usuga -- known as Otoniel -- was captured by authorities in Colombia, the government said Saturday.

The announcement marked the fall of a man who emerged from a poor peasant family to become Colombia's most-wanted man.

At the helm since 2012, Otoniel has been able to evade capture despite a $5 million US bounty on his head and massive manhunts involving more than 1,000 men.

Offering the reward in 2009, the US State Department described the gang as "a heavily armed, extremely violent criminal organization."It "uses violence and intimidation to control the narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points and clandestine landing strips," its website says.

President Ivan Duque compared Otoniel's arrest to the fall of Pablo Escobar, the great cocaine baron killed by Colombian police in 1993