Adolfo Macías Villamar, a notorious Ecuadorian gang leader, has been extradited to the US to face drug and gun trafficking charges.
“Fito” was apprehended in June, nearly a year after escaping from a high-security prison where he was serving a 34-year term for a series of crimes.
His lawyer told Reuters that he will appear in a US federal court on Monday and plead not guilty to international drug and weapons trafficking accusations.
Macías was the boss of the Los Choneros gang, which is related to significant criminal organisations in Mexico and the Balkans. He is also suspected of ordering the death of presidential contender Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.
Los Choneros is held responsible for Ecuador’s metamorphosis from a vacation destination to a country with one of the highest murder rates in the area.
More than 70% of all cocaine manufactured in the globe now goes via Ecuador’s ports. The country is located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest cocaine exporters.
In June, authorities located Macías in an underground bunker beneath a luxury mansion in Manta.
He was taken to La Roca, a maximum-security jail. Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa commended the security forces for apprehending him and announced that he would be deported to the United States.
According to the country’s jail system, he was released from prison in Ecuador earlier on Sunday and turned over to US officials.
“Mr Macías and I will appear tomorrow before the Brooklyn federal court … where he will plead not guilty,” his lawyer, Alexei Schacht, told Reuters. “After, he will be held in a to-be-determined prison.”
Ecuadorians voted in favour of enabling citizen extradition in a referendum held by President Noboa, who promised to combat rising crime.
In March of this year, Noboa told the BBC that he wanted the US, European, and Brazilian militaries to join his “war” against criminal gangs.
