Powerful Ecuador drug lord ‘Fito’ extradited to US

Strong Ecuador Gang Leader Adolfo Macías Villalamar was returned to the United States to confront drugs and arms smuggling.

He was recaptured in June almost a year after he escaped from a high -security prison, known as “Phyto”, sentenced to 34 years of imprisonment for a series of crimes.

In his statement to lawyer Reuters, he will appear in a US Federal Court on Monday and will not be found guilty of international drugs and arms trade.

Macías was the leader of Los Choneros Gang, who was connected to strong criminal organizations from Mexico and the Balkans. He is also suspected of ordered the assassination of Fernando Vilavicencio in 2023.

Los Choneros is accused of transformation from Ecuador’s tourist paradise to a country with one of the highest murder rates in the region.

More than 70% of all cocaine produced in the world are currently passing through Ecuador ports. The country is between Colombia and Peru, the two best cocaine exporters in the world.

In June, the police watched Macías described it as an underground shelter under a luxury house in Manta. The maximum security prison was taken to La Roca. At that time, Daniel Noboa, the president of Ecuador, praised his security forces to capture him and said he would be returned to the United States.

The country’s prison authority said it was removed from Ecuador prison in the early hours of Sunday to be delivered to US officials.

“Mr. Macías and I will appear before the Brooklyn Federal Court tomorrow … He won’t be guilty.” “Then, he will be held in a determined prison.”

Ecuadors voted in favor of allowing citizens to return in a referendum called by President Noboa, who promised to reduce the rising crime.

In March of this year, Noboa told the BBC that he wanted us to participate in the “war” against the European and Brazilian armies against criminal gangs.