The sentencing of Colombian drug lord Dairo Antonio Usuga David, alias “Otoniel”, who has just pleaded guilty before a United States court to charges of cocaine trafficking, will be announced on July 14, they announced this Friday judicial sources.
The judge investigating the case, Dora Irizarry, “has set the sentence for July 14, 2023,” reported the Brooklyn court where her case is.
Otoniel, one of the bloodiest and most violent drug lords since the Pablo Escobar era, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three charges: continued criminal enterprise, conspiring to manufacture and distribute cocaine, as well as maritime conspiracy for drug trafficking, of which he was accused by a Florida court.
These charges carry a life sentence, but the fact that the 51-year-old leader of the far-right paramilitary group Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, also known as the Gulf Clan, has pleaded guilty avoiding a lengthy and expensive trial, could influence failure.
According to the US attorney’s office, between 2003 and until his arrest in 2021, Otoniel was “the leader of a criminal enterprise responsible for exporting multiple shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico and Central America with the United States as the final destination.
In a statement read at Wednesday’s hearing, Otoniel acknowledged having sent 96,800 kilos of cocaine to the United States.
After acknowledging that in “military work, homicides were committed,” he maintained that his group, also known as Los Urabeños and Clan Úsuga, “gave security to laboratories and drug traffickers and collected taxes” for the cocaine that was processed and transited through the territories. that they controlled.
Part of the agreement is the payment of 216 million dollars in compensation, in addition to the fine imposed by the judge and which could amount to 22 million dollars.