A federal decide tore right into a brutal Colombian drug lord as she calling him “more prolific” than infamous drug trafficker Pablo Escobar and evaluating him to famed mafia boss John Gotti.
Brooklyn U.S. District Court Judge Dora Irizarry handed down the sentence for Dairo Antonio Usuga David, who as supreme chief of Clan del Golfo for almost a decade commanded a 6,000-strong paramilitary answerable for numerous killings and sending multi-ton shipments of cocaine to the U.S.
Usuga David, 51, was captured in Colombia in 2021 after an intense, years-long manhunt, and extradited to the U.S. in May 2022. He entered a responsible plea earlier than Irizarry in January that covers indictments Manhattan and Florida.
Irizarry scoffed at Usuga David’s claims that he grew up in poverty and was swept up within the battle and civil strife that surrounded him.
The decide famous that numerous folks the world over develop up surrounded by violence with out turning to a lifetime of crime.
“You used (your) intelligence, and frankly, your willingness to be ruthless, to disregard the value of human life to rise in the ranks, as you went along in your trajectory through these different organizations,” Irizarry stated.
She additionally pushed again when Usuga David’s legal professionals tried to criticize prosecutors for evaluating him to held Colombia in a brutal vise grip and was blamed for 80% of the cocaine trafficked to the U.S.
“There are many drug dealers who were more prolific than Pablo Escobar, including your client,” she stated.
Usuga David admitted being answerable for trafficking almost 100 tons of cocaine to the U.S., a quantity that “is extraordinary, and in all likelihood probably underestimates the actual volume involved,” the decide stated.
That quantity of medicine introduced an infinite price of human distress together with it, together with “the impact to families to lose people to the overdoses, to the violence that the drug trafficking generates,” stated Irizarry.
“People are shooting each other in the street, people are dying in the streets, and we see it day-to-day,” she stated. “We have innocent bystanders, babies, old people, people on their way to work, people coming home from work, getting caught in the crossfires.”
Irizarry stated she remained unconvinced by letters from members of the group in Colombia extolling his virtues and good deeds.
“I would not expect them to write anything else than letters of support for fear of retribution,” she stated.
The decide added: “John Gotti was loved by his community. He threw block parties in Howard Beach… And in the same breath he would order somebody murdered.”
The notorious , as soon as referred to as the “Teflon Don,” dominated the nation’s largest crime household till a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted him of racketeering in 2002.
Usuga David, who additionally glided by the title “Otoniel,” led a 6,000-member militarized cartel that managed huge swaths of territory within the Urabá area of Antioquia, Colombia.
He ordered his underlings to commit “likely uncountable murders of civilians and law enforcement officers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro stated.
Usuga David wielded his energy by occupying and shutting down total communities. After a 2012 police raid killed his brother, he ordered his cartel’s forces to close down the cities underneath his management. The residents had been informed to remain of their properties for a number of days, and anybody discovered violating his curfew can be executed.
At one level, he put a bounty on the top of each police officer in Colombia — and dozens had been killed in consequence, Navarro stated.
“He put a bounty of $70,000 on a police dog who aided in significant drug seizures,” the prosecutor stated.
In an announcement to the decide, Usuga David apologized to the U.S. and Colombia, to his victims and to his household.
“Having been born to a region of great conflict, I grew up within this conflict,” he stated. “To the people and the youth of Colombia, I would advise them not to take the path that I took. … I hope to be able to contribute any grain of sand I can contribute to peace.”
Irizarry’s sentence matched the federal government’s request to place Usuga David behind bars for 45 years.
Under the phrases of Usuga David’s extradition from Colombia, the federal government agreed to not search life in jail. He nonetheless faces a prolonged sentence in Colombia when he finishes his time within the U.S.
In an announcement, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace stated: “The human misery caused by the defendant’s incredibly violent, vengeful, and bloody reign as leader of the Clan de Golfo drug trafficking organization may never be fully calculated due to its magnitude.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr
