Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias ‘Otoniel’

Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias “Otoniel,” was the head of Colombia’s most powerful criminal group, the Urabeños, and the country’s most wanted man. But his grip on power had steadily been weakening as security forces gradually closed in, and he was captured in the municipality of Necoclí, near Colombia’s northern border with Panama, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque announced on October 23, 2021.

After his arrest, Otoniel appeared before Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) several times to testify about his participation in organized crime, his history with paramilitary groups, and his connections with authorities.

On May 4, 2022, he was extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking charges in the Southern District Court of New York. In early 2023, he pleaded guilty to running a criminal organization, to conspiracy to distribute narcotics by sea, and to conspiracy to import narcotics. He was eventually sentenced to 45 years behind bars in the United States, and subsequently will have to serve a 30-year sentence back home, if he lives that long.

The Story of Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias ‘Otoniel,’

Otoniel began his underworld career as a member of the now-demobilized guerrilla group, the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación – EPL). Though he demobilized in 1991, at the age of 19, along with some 2,500 other guerrilla members, he returned to fighting soon after when he and his brother Juan de Dios Úsuga, alias “Giovanni,” signed up with the paramilitary Córdoba and Urabá Peasant Defense Forces (Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá – ACCU).

The ACCU was later incorporated into the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC), and Otoniel was sent to join the ranks of the AUC’s Centauros Bloc. There, he worked under the bloc’s finance chief, Daniel Rendón Herrera, alias “Don Mario,” laundering funds and handling extortion payments. In 2005, he again surrendered, this time under the AUC’s demobilization process. But once again his demobilization was short-lived, and he soon reunited with Don Mario to help form the Urabeños.

After Don Mario’s capture by Colombian authorities in 2009, Otoniel and Giovanni assumed complete control of the Urabeños.

Under the brothers’ command, the Urabeños expanded across the country using a mix of violence and deal-making, setting them on the path to eventually become the most powerful criminal group in Colombia.

In January 2012, the security forces killed Giovanni, leaving Otoniel as the leader of the Urabeños. Since then he has headed a small command group dominated by his ex-comrades from the EPL and AUC. Under Otoniel’s leadership, the Urabeños continued their expansion, either absorbing their rivals or wiping them out, and they soon became the only Colombian criminal organization remaining with a truly national reach.

In 2015, the security forces launched Operation Agamemnon, an offensive that sent top anti-drug officials and over 1,000 police and military officials to Urabá to target the Urabeños operations and hunt down Otoniel. The criminal leader made entreaties to the government to negotiate his surrender, including via a public video appeal in September 2017. But these appeals did not result in his surrender. That same year, Colombian police stated that Agamemnon had dismantled “half” of the Urabeños, although that number is difficult to quantify.

In 2018, the government operation was renewed as Agamemnon 2, with up to 3,000 soldiers reportedly dedicated to fighting the Urabeños. This continued pressure certainly weakened Otoniel, who saw his closest advisors captured or killed, and his brother, sister and cousin arrested and extradited to the United States.

Following Otoniel’s capture, Colombian media reports revealed how he had spent his final months trying to stay ahead of security forces in the Paramillo Massif, a mountain range with numerous waterways, in northern Colombia, moving between campsites and rural properties.

After his arrest, Otoniel appeared several times in front of Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz – JEP) to testify about his criminal group’s involvement in organized crime, his history with paramilitary groups and their links to authorities and public figures.

His extradition to the United States in May 2022 set up a landmark trial in which numerous revelations about the full extent of his criminal activities are set to be revealed.

In August 2023, a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, sentenced Otoniel to 45 years in prison on drug trafficking charges. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit US$216 million.

In June 2026, the Seventh Specialized Criminal Court of Antioquia sentenced him to 360 months in prison for aggravated homicide, aggravated terrorism, aggravated torture, forced displacement, aggravated criminal conspiracy, and possession of weapons reserved for the Colombian Armed Forces. The ruling covered crimes linked to the AGC’s 2016 armed strike and several acts of violence attributed to the organization during his leadership.

What Criminal Activities Was Otoniel Engaged In?

Otoniel led one of Colombia’s largest criminal organizations, which controls strategic drug production and trafficking territories and provides services to independent drug traffickers. Local Urabeños cells are also involved in a broad range of criminal activities, including extortion, illegal mining, microtrafficking, and contraband, and many of these had to pay a percentage of their profits to the national leadership headed by Otoniel.

In 2026, a Colombian court convicted him of aggravated homicide, aggravated terrorism, aggravated torture, forced displacement, aggravated criminal conspiracy, and illegal possession of military-grade weapons.

Where Was Otoniel Most Powerful?

Otoniel was believed to largely operate in his home region and Urabeños stronghold, Urabá, a subdivision of Colombia’s northwestern department of Antioquia, as well as in Córdoba, a neighboring department to the north. He lived on the run, and reportedly used guerrilla tactics to avoid capture, including traveling only by foot or mule and never sleeping in the same place on consecutive nights.

In October 2021, he was captured by government forces in Necoclí, a coastal municipality in northern Colombia, near the border with Panama.

Who Were Otoniel’s Allies and Enemies?

Otoniel and his brother, Giovanni, expanded the Urabeños influence by violently confronting rivals such as the Rastrojos, while making allies of local criminal groups and drug traffickers across the country. Often these actors became part of the Urabeños “franchise.” In some regions, the group also struck drug trade agreements with the now-demobilized guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC).

In the city of Medellín, they made a pact with the city mafia, the Oficina de Envigado, with which they had previously fought for control of the city. They also contract out tasks to street gangs, for crimes such as microtrafficking, extortion, and targeted killings.

Amid underworld shake-ups following the demobilization of the FARC, Otoniel’s Urabeños became embroiled in bitter turf wars with the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) guerrilla and FARC dissident groups.

In 2020 and 2021, the group also became involved, albeit in a limited manner, in the ongoing scramble for cross-border criminal economies between Colombia and Venezuela, reportedly reaching some sort of alliance with their old enemies, the Rastrojos, to fight the ELN there. Their impact inside Venezuela, compared to the ELN or dissident FARC groups, has remained relatively limited, however. Since this evolution happened in the final months of Otoniel’s freedom, it is uncertain how much sway he had on this development.

Since 2015, Otoniel and Urabeños leadership had been the target of Operation Agamemnon. This placed Otoniel on the back foot as he reportedly had to regularly move camp around Urabá and other parts of Antioquia. While security forces did take several years to finally track him down, speaking to the support Otoniel received and knowledge of the area among his forces, this sustained pressure eventually caught up with him.

His successor within the Urabeños appears to be Jobanis de Jesús Ávila Villadiego, alias “Chiquito Malo.” An old guard within the group, Chiquito Malo has a strong grasp of drug trafficking and other criminal economies within Urabá, the Urabeños’ heartland, but may struggle to keep the group united across Colombia.

What Does the Future Hold for Otoniel?

Otoniel’s criminal career effectively came to an end with his extradition to the United States and subsequent guilty plea, following a path taken by several major Colombian drug traffickers before him.

Otoniel’s extradition followed that of several relatives and senior members of the organization. His guilty plea also mirrored the trajectory of other prominent traffickers, such as Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, alias “Chupeta,” the former leader of the North Valley Cartel (Cartel del Norte del Valle), who pleaded guilty and has cooperated with US authorities since 2007.

Although Otoniel’s capture was presented as a historic blow to the organization, the Gaitanistas have consolidated their position under the leadership of Jobanis de Jesús Ávila Villadiego, alias “Chiquito Malo.” The group has strengthened its territorial presence, expanded several of its criminal economies, and remains Colombia’s most powerful criminal organization.

The long-term impact of Otoniel’s arrest remains uncertain. By the time he was captured, years on the run had left him increasingly isolated from the organization’s day-to-day operations. His attempts to negotiate a surrender with the government also likely weakened his authority among the group’s regional commanders.

InSight Crime investigations indicate that, for several years before his arrest, Otoniel no longer commanded the unquestioned loyalty of the organization’s leadership. Many commanders appeared to follow his directives only when doing so aligned with their own interests, limiting the disruption caused by his removal.