Dairo Antonio Suga, popularly known as Otoniel, a notorious Colombian cocaine trafficker, entered a guilty plea to drug charges in a US court.
For more than nine years, Otoniel presided over the most dangerous criminal organisation in Colombia.
In October 2021, he was apprehended in his Colombian hiding place and deported to the US the following year, when a reward was offered for information leading to his capture.
The 51-year-old consented to turn over $216 million (£173 million) in drug revenue.
Otoniel entered a guilty plea on Wednesday to accusations of narcotics trafficking and smuggling as well as "operating a continuing criminal organisation."
He now risks receiving a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in jail or maybe a life sentence.
Otoniel was dubbed "the most major Colombian drug trafficker since [the head of the Medelln cartel] Pablo Escobar" by one of the prosecutors.
He was "one of the most violent and successful drug traffickers in the world," according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
For assistance in locating him, the US had offered a $5 million (£4 million) reward.
After years of unsuccessful attempts, Colombian security authorities finally succeeded in apprehending him in October 2021 after locating a safe house in a remote area of the country's Antioquia region.
Otoniel didn't have a phone; instead, he relied on couriers to communicate as he moved around and evaded the law through a network of rural safe homes.
He assumed control of the Gulf Clan following the death of its former leader, Juan de Dios suga, who was Otoniel's brother, in a police operation on New Year's Eve in 2012.
The gang engages in extortion, illegal gold mining, the smuggling of drugs and persons, and operates in numerous provinces and across the globe.
Many of the routes used to move drugs from Colombia to the US and as far as Russia are under its control.
