Juan Larinson Castro, better known as Matamba, an accused top Colombian drug trafficker who escaped a maximum-security prison in the Andean country earlier this year, was killed in a police operation to try and recapture him on Thursday, the government said.
Matamba was an important member of Colombia's leading drug-trafficking gang, the Clan del Golfo, and was accused of being allied with Mexican cartels and of shipping tonnes of cocaine to the United States.
Though captured during his birthday celebrations in May 2021 in the city of Bucaramanga, capital of Colombia's Santander province, Matamba later fled a maximum-security prison in the capital Bogota last March while dressed as a prison guard, according to police.
