[10][18] In June 2020, the Colombian National Police revealed that former Los Rastrojos member Marlon Gregorio Celis Caballero, alias 'Loquillo or Felipe', had become the new leader of the Clan del Golfo by April 2020.

[23] For the "Clan del Golfo," before named "Los Urabeños" from Urabá, the northwestern region near the Panamanian border is highly prized by drug traffickers as it offers access to the Caribbean and Pacific coast, from the departments of Antioquia and Chocó.

The Centauros trafficked cocaine, propped up local politicians, extorted ranchers and farmers, and collected security taxes for products ranging from alcohol to petroleum.

Rendón then found refuge in the Urabá region, where his brother Freddy, alias ‘El Aleman,’ headed his own paramilitary group, the Bloque Elmer Cardenas.

Shortly afterward, Arroyave was ambushed and killed by his former allies, including Pedro Oliverio Guerrero, alias ‘Cuchillo.’ When Freddy Rendón chose to demobilize in 2006, his brother ‘Don Mario’ seized the opportunity to expand his drug trafficking operations in the Urabá gulf.

As the AUC blocs were officially demobilized, this new paramilitary groups called themselves Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces or Don Mario's Black Eagles in an attempt to legitimize their actions.

[24][25] Rendón attempted to expand his empire, moving into southern Córdoba, the Lower Cauca region in northern Antioquia and even venturing into Medellin, long controlled by the Oficina de Envigado.

[28] In a surprising display of strength, the Gulf Clan organized a series of coordinated strikes protesting his deaths in northern Antioquia, handing out fliers which referred to the group's former name, the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces.

These include zones with natural seaports along the Caribbean coast, or areas where coca base must be bought, like Caucasia or Tarazá in Antioquia (InSight has also heard reports of a Urabeño cell in Medellín).

[citation needed] The Gulf Clan are also known to contract local street gangs who help with the retail and mid-level distribution of cocaine, extortion and select assassination.

By "sponsoring" other low-level gangs, this group has been able to maintain small, select cells of highly disciplined men in the field, responsible for ever-larger swathes of territory.

There are also indications that the group has been successful enough in terms of recruitment to move into other key territories like Barrancabermeja, Santander, one of Colombia's oil towns long prized by the Rastrojos.

[40] In October 2018, it was reported that as a result of the deaths and arrests of these three senior leaders within a year of either each other, the Gulf Clan saw a major reorganization in its leadership, with Giovanis Ávila Villadiego, alias "Chiquito Malo," reportedly the main person in charge of maritime trafficking routes to the United States and Europe; Nelson Darío Hurtado Simanca, alias "Marihuano," in command of the Central Urabá Bloc (Bloque Central Urabá) and some 700 men in the Caribbean sub-region; and other commanders of regional blocs.

[1][2] It was also reported that rather than Chiquito Malo, fellow Cuarentano-employed trafficker Darío Úsuga Torres, alias "Pueblo," was named by Colombian police as Cuarentano's most likely successor.

[1][2] However, by the time she was re-arrested on March 17, 2021, Nini Johana was once again managing the Clan del Golfo's illicit finances resulting from narco-trafficking and money laundering.

[43] Between January and August 2019, Colombian police reported 339 captures and nine members killed in Public Force operations, in addition, the seizure of 12.6 tons of cocaine hydrochloride which, according to the authorities, leads to close the fence over the heir to a structure that spread throughout the country.

[2] In December 2019, senior Clan del Gulfo drug trafficker and money launderer Joaquin Guillermo David-Usuga was extradited from Colombia to the U.S city of Houston, Texas.

[46] On April 25, 2020, cartel leader Gustavo Adolfo Álvarez Téllez, who was one of Colombia's most wanted drug lords and also had a bounty of up to 580 million pesos for his capture, was arrested at his lavish estate in Cereté while holding a party under quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[48] On May 4, 2020, leader of the cartel's violent Jorge Iván Arboleda Garcés’ fraction Aureliano Pérez Caballero, alias Dávinson, was arraigned in court following his arrest the previous day.

At this time, it was also revealed that military operations which had been carried out in the Colombian regions of Antioquia, Atlántico, Córdoba and Sucre had significantly diminished the influence of the Clan del Golfo.

[59] On October 8, 2020, imprisoned former Clan del Golfo leader Jhony Fidel Cuello-Petro, alias Mocho, arrived in Houston after being extradited from Colombia.

[60] On October 16, 2020, Colombian National Police announced that a senior Clan del Golfo financier who served leader of cartel's Edwin Román Velázquez Valle substructure was among four Edwin Román Velázquez Valle members who were arrested in the Antioquia municipalities of Buriticá, Saznta Fe and Livorina.According to National Police officer Colonel William Castaño, head of the National Unit against Illegal Mining and Antiterrorism, the senior Clan Del Golfo financier, identified as "Diego," "was in charge of the extortion of merchants and people dedicated to the extraction of minerals in this part of the country.

[65] Colombian National Police Major General Fernando Murillo Orrego, head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol (DIJIN), "Zapata Garzón ran a narco-trafficking and money laundering organization associated with the Clan del Golfo" The DIJIN also released a statement revealing that Zapata Garzón shared routes for drug trafficking to Europe and the United States with the Clan del Golfo, through shell companies, investments, and real estate and personal properties in 17 Departments of Colombia.

[65] In December 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Zapata Garzón "for materially assisting the international narcotics trafficking activities of the Clan del Golfo.

"[66][65] The joint federal statement, which was released on January 4, 2021, also revealed that the number of Clan del Golfo members arrested during the phase of Operation Agamemnon that started on December 30, 2020, had by then grown to 198.

According to the Colombian Navy, those arrested are alleged to have been responsible for smuggling more than 13 tons of cocaine into Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama during 19 drug trafficking operations.

[69][70] Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he was suspending a ceasefire between the armed forces of Colombia and the Gulf Clan following an attack on an aqueduct and shooting at police officers.

[71] At the time of his New York sentencing in August 2023, Dario Antonio Úsuga David was described by U.S. federal prosecutors as the cartel's "supreme leader" and “the most violent and significant” Colombian drug trafficker since Pablo Escobar.

[72] On 26 December 2023 Clan del Golfo boss Jacob Rodríguez Úsuga, also known as "Atilio," was arrested by police in the municipality of Carepa, in Antioquia.

[77] In April and May 2022, the Gulf Clan launched attacks across rural northern Colombia after their leader Dairo Antonio Úsuga was extradited to the United States.