2023-08-02 02:31:00
Tucked into his cell for 23 hours a day, incommunicado with the rest of the inmates and unable to speak to any member of his family: this is how the former head of the Clan del Golfo Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, alias Otoniel, one of the most powerful and important drug traffickers in the country, since he was extradited to the United States on May 4, 2022.
In addition to being in one of the most imposing extreme security prisons in North America, Úsuga was sheltered under the Special Administrative Measures – better known as SAM, for its acronym in English – which are applied only to the most dangerous criminals in the world.
Among the restrictions included in the SAM are intensive monitoring and isolation of prisoners who had already been ordered to solitary confinement. That, in practical terms, means that prisoners like Otoniel can go whole days without even seeing another person. They cannot talk to anyone and are even watched while they talk with their lawyers through thick security glass and a telephone on both sides.
All this with the aim that Úsuga, or any other criminal sheltered with the SAM, cannot resume the command line of the armed group to which he belonged or plan his escape. “SAM were implemented after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and seek to prevent any threat to the security of the United States,” reads the website of the State Department of that country.
Such measures are so extreme that by 2017 there were only 57 prisoners in the entire United States under surveillance under that regime.
With all this in mind, Úsuga David’s lawyers launched a legal battle asking the US judges to withdraw the SAMs and, in general, lower the security measures of Otoniel who, according to them, “is in terrible prison conditions.”
It may interest you: Otoniel pleaded guilty to drug trafficking before the United States court
There is a risk of killing witnesses
The legal fight to try to “liberate” the former head of the Clan del Golfo began exactly on June 2. That day, his US lawyer filed a petition that explicitly requested the elimination of the Special Administrative Measures on the grounds that Úsuga had pleaded guilty and, therefore, would not attempt to threaten or assassinate witnesses, which was the main reason for his imprisonment. maximum security.
“Far from wanting to punish those who were witnesses against him, he maintains affection for some of them and has even helped them in various ways,” reads the defense text.
However, and despite the fact that Úsuga has already accepted all his charges for drug trafficking in the US, the Government of Joe Biden has already dismissed the petition and sent a concept on June 23 in which he ensures that Otoniel must continue with the SAM because they are appropriate for the type of criminal he is and the power he had within his armed group.
In the document, the Government asks not to forget that Úsuga “was the supreme leader of the Clan del Golfo (CDG), one of the most violent and powerful criminal groups in drug trafficking in the world.”
In addition: “Otoniel” will negotiate a plea agreement with the US justice system.
Barely seven days after that legal movement, the defense insisted again with a petition filed on June 29. That day, the lawyers for the former drug trafficker were happy that Otoniel was not even allowed to receive medical attention without a judge’s order and that he was constantly forced to sleep with the light on.
For now, it is expected that the judges will evaluate the case in depth and make a substantive decision on whether Otoniel still requires SAM and prolonged isolation. While this is happening, the US judicial authorities have already prepared the date of the trial: on August 8 the country will know what the sentence will be for the ex-capo that the Government came to describe as “the most important drug trafficker since the era of Pablo Escobar”.
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