A Colombian drug kingpin has been sentenced to 35 years in a US prison for engaging in a multimillion-dollar scheme to manufacture hundreds of tonnes of cocaine that he trafficked throughout the world.

Daniel Barrera Barrera, 48, also known as "Loco" (Crazy), was sentenced by US District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan after pleading guilty to various narcotic-related charges and conspiring to engage in money laundering.

Judge Woods fined Barrera $10 million (£7.6 million) and ordered him to forfeit the same amount.

The kingpin was described by the judge as a "smart, talented, maybe even gifted man", who went from working as a farm hand to heading a violent drug trafficking organisation.

"Simply put, the scope of the offence here is staggering," Judge Woods said.

Speaking through a Spanish translator, Barrera said: "I ask for my family's forgiveness for all of the suffering I have caused them."

Authorities said Barrera had been one of the most prolific drug traffickers of the last two decades before his capture in Venezuela in 2012 following years in hiding.

Prosecutors said that from 1998 to 2010, Barrera ran a cocaine manufacturing and trafficking syndicate that produced an estimated 5,000 kilograms of cocaine a month, resulting in more than 720 tonnes of cocaine being produced during the scheme.

Barrera bought raw cocaine paste from the leftist rebel group FARC and processed it in laboratories in areas controlled by a now-demobilised paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, authorities said.

The drug empire generated tens of millions of dollars, which Barrera laundered and protected using dozens of armed guards and enforcers, many of whom at his direction threatened or killed individuals who owed money or posed a threat, prosecutors said.

Barrera was extradited from Colombia in July 2013 to the US, where he faced three separate indictments in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Miami.