A notorious Colombian drug kingpin known as “El Loco” was extradited to the United States yesterday to face charges of manufacturing hundreds of tons of cocaine a year and trafficking it to America and other countries — laundering tens of millions of dollars in the process.
Daniel “El Loco” Barrera — who has been dubbed “the last of the great capos” by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos — was flown to Westchester County Airport in White Plains, where he was processed. He was expected to be locked up last night at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting arraignment, sources said.
Barrera is set to be arraigned separately on the drug-trafficking charges in Manhattan federal court today and Brooklyn federal court tomorrow. He also faces similar charges in Florida.
He was arrested Sept. 18 in Venezuela by US Drug Enforcement Administration agents stationed in Columbia, sources said. The agents then shipped him back to Colombia, which extradited him to the United States.
Officials say he’s had several cosmetic surgeries and tried to burn off his fingerprints with acid to mask his identity.
Authorities have said the kingpin ran drug-trafficking routes in Colombia, shipping the cocaine from there or Venezuela on ships to Central America, Mexico, Brazil and other nearby nations.
From there, it was sent to the United States.