Colombia extradites accused drug cartel leader’s sister to U.S
BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia on Friday extradited to the USA a sister of accused main drug cartel chief Dairo Antonio Usaga, generally known as Otoniel, to face drug trafficking prices, the nationwide police mentioned.
Colombian police accuse Nini Johana Usaga, 39, of being chargeable for laundering drug cash for the Clan del Golfo and dealing with worldwide relations with cartels in different international locations like Mexico, serving to to coordinate shipments of narcotics.
Her brother, accused head of the Clan del Golfo, was extradited to face drug trafficking prices in the USA in early Might. He pleaded not responsible to the fees in federal courtroom in New York.
Authorities say Otoniel, 50, is chargeable for the deaths of a whole bunch of members of Colombia’s safety forces.
Six different individuals have been extradited alongside Nini Johana Usaga to additionally face drug trafficking prices.
Although extradition was abolished in 1991 in Colombia, Congress restored it simply six years later. It is likely one of the principal instruments in Colombia’s arsenal for preventing drug trafficking.
Otoniel, who in line with Colombian authorities trafficked 180 to 200 tonnes of cocaine a yr, was detained final October in Antioquia province.
The Clan del Golfo, which has greater than 1,200 combatants in line with safety forces, launched a so-called “armed strike” to protest Otoniel’s extradition, paralyzing swathes of Colombia within the course of.
Navy and police authorities from greater than 40 international locations labored to seize 169 tonnes of cocaine and 41 tonnes of marijuana through the ninth part of the worldwide anti-narcotics Orion marketing campaign, Colombia’s Protection Minister Diego Molano mentioned afterward Friday.
With the seizures from Orion’s most up-to-date part, which ran from March to Might, medication confiscated since 2018 whole 716 tonnes of cocaine and 216 tonnes of marijuana.
Drug trafficking and the conflict on medication are main contributors to Colombia’s armed battle, in line with a report this week from the nation’s fact fee, which was established as a part of a 2016 peace take care of the now demobilized FARC guerrillas.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime AcostaWriting by Oliver Griffin; enhancing by Grant McCool and Richard Chang)
