Alleged kingpin denied release

The boss of a Colombian drug trafficking organization responsible for sending tons of cocaine into the United States lost a bid to be freed or transferred from Brooklyn’s federal jail amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Daniel Rendon Herrera, 55, led Clan Usuga from June 2003 to December 2014, and used kidnapping and murder tosupporthisimportation of coke from Colombia through Central America and Mexico into the United States, federal prosecutors allege.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Ramon Reyes on Friday rejected Rendon Herrera’s application after prosecutors strenuously opposed his release or transfer.

Rendon Herrera (inset), aka Don Mario, asked Wednesday to be released on bond or transferred to a federal prison hospital facility from Brooklyn’s

Metropolitan Detention Center. His application was under seal.

He does not have COVID-19 symptoms, and does not live in a unit or on a floor at MDC where any inmates have tested positive. Rendon Herrera was dubbed “the most feared narcoterrorist in Colombia” by Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge James Hunt when he was extradited to the U.S. in 2018.

Rendon Herrera was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison by Colombian courts. He’s charged separately in Brooklyn Federal Court with running a continuing criminal enterprise and with manufacturing and distributing narcotics. The U.S. charges could send him to prison for another 20 years.