Colombia’s most wanted drug lord Otoniel captured

Colombian security forces have captured the country's most-wanted drug trafficker, a rural warlord who stayed on the run for more than a decade by corrupting state officials and aligning himself with combatants on the left and right, ABC News reported.

President Iván Duque likened the arrest of Dairo Antonio Úsuga to the capture three decades ago of Pablo Escobar.

"This is the biggest blow against drug trafficking in our country this century," Duque said during a broadcast video message.

One police officer died during the operation, Duque said.

Úsuga, better known by his alias Otoniel, is the alleged head of the much-feared Gulf Clan, whose army of assassins has terrorized much of northern Colombia to gain control of major cocaine smuggling routes through thick jungles north to Central America and on to the US.

KI/PR