The Colombian government announced on the 23rd that its number one wanted drug lord, Dero Antonio Ursuga, was arrested. The website of Spain's Le Monde published an article on October 24 that took stock of Ursuga's thrilling life and the details of his arrest. The full text is excerpted below:
His mother, a devout Pentecostal, prayed that the police would catch her son. She knew that her son was wanted for a hefty bounty, fearing that he would eventually be battered by bullets.
"I want my son to go to jail," Anna Selsa David said in an interview with Le Monde at his home in Cigorodo, Antioquia, Colombia. And unlike now, always on the run, it's too difficult. ”
Back in 2015, U.S. authorities offered a $5 million reward for the arrest of Delo Antonio Ursuga (alias "Ottonier"), the leader of Colombia's most powerful drug gang, the Gulf Family.
In 2016, Colombian authorities launched Operation Agamemnon to arrest Ottoñell and formed a special 1,000-strong body for this purpose, which was later tripled in order to hunt down Ottonier and weaken the powerful "Gulf Family".
Five years later, the Colombian government announced on October 23 that Autonier had been arrested in a joint anti-drug operation code-named Operation Pluto, jointly conducted by the Colombian Air Force, Army and Police. According to Colombian Defense Minister Diego Morano, it was intelligence flowing from within the "Gulf family" that helped the military and police finally capture the country's biggest drug lord.
It is said that Otonier is hiding in a desolate mountainous area in the province of Antioquia, which is difficult to break through. To that end, the Colombian government mobilized 22 helicopters and more than 500 soldiers, including members of the special forces, and deployed several layers of encirclement around its hideout to ensure that it could not slip away.
Otonier's mother, who said her son was a shy boy at school, joined a Colombian guerrilla group that controlled New Antioquia at the age of 18, where his parents ran the farm.
In the 1990s, Ottonier joined the Far-Limbión colombia (FARC), but after the group reached an agreement with the government to disband in 2006, he refused to lay down his arms and led his remnants to engage in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, which gradually developed into the "Gulf Family" drug trafficking organization.
Ottonier was a cold and suspicious man, and only an old photograph of him is currently circulating. He never used electronic media and always communicated with members of the organization by sending letters by hand. He has committed countless crimes.
The Government has issued 168 arrest warrants against Ottonier for various heinous crimes. Although the United States has requested his extradition, it is unlikely that the Colombian Supreme Court will agree to send him abroad without first being tried inside Colombia. In addition, many police, soldiers, judges, prosecutors and officials of local authorities will be strained about their corrupt relationship with the criminal group led by Ottonier.
In any case, what impact Ottoner's arrest will have on the armed criminal gangs he leads and who will be his successor remains unclear. (Compilation/Han Chao)
This is a film taken in Bogotá, Colombia, on Oct. 23, by The chief wanted drug lord in Colombia, Dairo Antonio Usuga (center). Xinhua News Agency/Reuters
Source: Reference News Network