Columbian drug trafficker pleaded guilty for smuggling at least 73,645 kgs cocaine

US: A man who was once considered Colombia's most-wanted drug trafficker pleaded guilty Tuesday to US charges of distributing narcotics and supporting a terrorist group as part of a billion-dollar cocaine empire.

US authorities said Daniel Rendon Herrera, 56, accepted responsibility for smuggling at least 73,645 kilograms (81 tons) of cocaine that spreads addiction and death in his home country and the United States.

Prosecutors said the defendant was also the leader of a group known as Los Urabenos along with Dairo Antonio Usuga, a suspected Colombian drug trafficker known as Otoniel who was captured last month in what authorities in Colombia called a coup against trafficking.

Herrera, known as Don Mario, pleaded guilty to US District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn. He was accused in the United States of shipping cocaine to US territory and buying weapons for the paramilitary combatants he commanded.

"I associated with other people to collect taxes for the transportation of coca that came to the United States," Rendón Herrera told Irizarry through an interpreter.

The defendant faces up to life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years, and more than $ 47 million combined in forfeiture and a fine.

Rendón Herrera was arrested in the Colombian jungle in 2009 and extradited to the United States in 2018. He had previously pleaded not guilty.

Irizarry said Rendón Herrera will likely be deported due to his guilty plea, and may be credited in sentencing for the time he spent in Colombian jails.

Prosecutors said he faces sentences in Colombia for convictions related to drug trafficking, weapons violations and "numerous" homicides.

The 50-year-old Usuga eventually rose to lead the Urabenos, also known as the Clan del Golfo. Bogotá has vowed to swiftly extradite Usuga to the United States to face drug trafficking charges there.