Powerful Ecuador drug lord 'Fito' extradited to US
Los Choneros is blamed for Ecuador's transformation from a tourist haven to a country with one of the highest murder rates in the region.More than 70% of all cocaine produced in the world currently passes through Ecuador's ports. The country is located between the world's two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru. In June, police tracked Macías down to what they described as an underground bunker below a luxury home in the city of Manta. He was taken to La Roca, a maximum security prison. At the time, Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa praised the security forces for capturing him and said that he would be extradited to the US.The country's prison authority said he was taken out of prison in Ecuador earlier on Sunday to be handed over to US authorities. "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."Ecuadoreans voted in favor of allowing the extradition of citizens in a referendum called by President Noboa, who vowed to crack down on rising crime.In March this year, Noboa told the BBC he wants US, European and Brazilian armies to join his "war" against criminal gangs.
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The Guardian
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- The Guardian
Men freed from El Salvador mega-prison endured ‘state-sanctioned torture', lawyers say
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But Customs and Border Protection agents had flagged Ramos Bastidas as a possible member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, based on an unsubstantiated report from Panamanian officials and his tattoos. So they transferred him to a detention facility, where he was to remain until he could be deported. Despite agreeing to return to Venezuela, he remained for months in detention. 'I think what is particularly enraging for José is that he had accepted his deportation,' said Alvarez-Jones. 'He was asking for his deportation for a long time, and he just wanted to go back home.' In December, Venezuela wasn't accepting deportees – so Ramos Bastidas asked if he could be released and make his own way home. A month later, Donald Trump was sworn in as president. Everything changed. Ramos Bastidas began to see other Venezuelans were being sent to the military base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba – and he feared the same would happen to him. 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The National
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Man arrested after police recover £360,000 worth of cocaine
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