Drug Capo awaiting extradition to USA escapes  

AFP-Bogota -One of the most powerful drug traffickers of the Clan del Golfo, known by the alias Matamba and required for extradition by the United States, escaped this Friday from a Bogotá prison, in a new scandal involving prison authorities.

Juan Larrinson Castro Estupiñán, a prisoner in La Picota, had been captured in May and was facing trial in the state of Florida for money laundering and cocaine and heroin trafficking.

The capo of the Clan del Golfo, the most powerful drug organization in Colombia headed by Dairo Úsuga, alias Otoniel, also imprisoned in Bogotá, escaped with the alleged complicity of prison guards.

“I already spoke with the attorney general of the nation this morning so that all the necessary arrests are made of those who caused that escape by the prison,” President Iván Duque told the press.

One of the guards has already been captured, added Justice Minister Wilson Ruiz.

Until the moment of his arrest, Matamba was considered the main link of the Mexican Sinaloa Nueva Generación cartel in the Colombian Pacific, on the border with Ecuador.

In Colombia, he is also investigated for homicide, extortion, and illegal possession of weapons.

Estupiñán was part of the communist guerrillas before fighting alongside the far-right paramilitaries, staunch enemies of the rebels. After negotiating with Otoniel, he assumed command of a group of 200 men within the Clan del Golfo, according to authorities.

Following his escape, President Duque announced “a comprehensive reform of the Colombian penitentiary and prison system” after the corruption scandals involving the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec).

At the beginning of this month, the Colombian government dismissed the head of the prisons and the director of the largest prison in the country for the irregular exit permits granted to businessman Carlos Mattos, arrested for allegedly paying bribes in a lawsuit with the South Korean multinational Hyundai.

Open doors
In videos published by the Caracol newscast, Mattos was seen leaving La Picota prison twice in an Inpec vehicle. Then walked unguarded and entered a building where his office would be, according to the news outlet.

“The system cannot continue to have these behaviors without exemplary sanctions,” Duque insisted on Friday.