Colombia extradites top cartel suspect

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia on Wednesday extradited the alleged head of the feared Gulf Clan, who had been the country’s most-wanted drug lord before his capture, to the United States, where he faces indictments in three federal courts — in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Miami.

Colombian President Ivan Duque said Dairo Antonio Usuga David is “comparable only to Pablo Escobar,” the late former head of the Medellin drug cartel.

“He is not only the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world, but he is murderer of social leaders, abuser of boys, girls and adolescents, a murderer of policemen,” said Duque, accompanied by Colombian military leaders whom he congratulated for guarding Usuga David after capturing him in October.

The former rural warlord, better known by his alias Otoniel, had stayed on the run for more than a decade by corrupting state officials and aligning himself with combatants on both the left and right. He was transferred in handcuffs and wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest from a prison in Bogota to a heavily guarded military transport air field.

He’s long been a fixture on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted list and was first indicted in 2009.