Colombia's combined military and police have arrested drug kingpin Dairo Antonio Usuga, also known as Otoniel, in what President Ivan Duque described as "the biggest blow to drug trafficking" in Colombia since Pablo Escobar's death.
Indictments filed in Brooklyn and Miami show Otoniel imported 73 metric tons of cocaine into the United States between 2003 and 2014, The Washington Post reported.
In its report, Reuters said the 50-year-old Otoniel is suspected of numerous shipment of cocaine to the U.S., as well as killing police officers, recruiting youngsters, and sexually abusing children.
When he was captured during an operation this weekend, the man Colombia identifies as the "world's most dangerous drug trafficker" told security officers, "You beat me," the government said Sunday.
Officials said Otoniel was apprehended by Colombian armed forces during an operation in a rural part of the country's Uraba district, Antioquia province, that comprised more than 500 Colombian special forces and 22 helicopters.
One police officer was killed during the operation, Duque said.
Otoniel was the leader of the Los Urabeos or Autodefensas Gaitanistas, a "heavily armed, very dangerous criminal group composed of former members of terrorist organizations," the U.S. Department of Justice website shows.
Colombia's government will file a request to extradite Otoniel to the U.S. with the Andean country's Supreme Court on Monday, Justice Minister Wilson Ruiz told Reuters, adding that the process might take four weeks.
"All those who commit international crimes will face extradition," Defense Minister Diego Molano told journalists in Necocli, near where Otoniel was caught.
Colombia had offered a reward of up to 3 billion pesos (about $800,000) for information regarding Otoniel's whereabouts, while the U.S. had dangled a reward of $5 million for assistance in finding him.
Molano stated that both rewards will be paid, describing Otoniel as "the worst kind of criminal."
Following periods as a left-wing guerrilla and then as a paramilitary, Otoniel rose to become the leader of the drug-trafficking organisation Clan del Golfo, or Gulf Clan.
Information released by Colombia's national police said the Clan del Golfo operates in 12 of the country's 32 provinces and has 3,800 members.
Meanwhile, Colombia Risk Analysis chief Sergio Guzman has pleaded caution, saying a new drug kingpin would definitely be waiting to take over.
"It is a big deal because Otoniel is the biggest drug lord in Colombia," Guzman said.
