COLOMBIA: Colombia’s most-wanted drug trafficker and the leader of the country’s largest criminal gang has been captured, BBC has reported.

Dairo Antonio Usaga, better known as Otoniel, was seized after a joint operation by the army, air force and police, it said.

The government had offered $800,000 reward for information about his whereabouts, while the US had placed a $5m bounty on his head, according to the report.

President Iván Duque hailed Otoniel’s capture in a televised video message.

“This is the biggest blow against drug trafficking in our country this century,” he said. “This blow is only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.”

Otoniel was captured in his rural hideout in Antioquia province in north-western Colombia, close to the border with Panama.

Otoniel become the head of the Gulf Clan, previously known as the Usuga Clan, after its previous leader – his brother – was killed by police in a raid on a New Year’s Eve party almost ten years ago.

(With inputs from BBC)