Ecuador extradites notorious drug kingpin ‘Fito’ to US | Ecuador

The Ecuadoran authorities has extradited the infamous drug trafficker Adolfo Macías to the US, greater than a 12 months after he escaped from a high-security jail.The flight transporting Macías, also called “Fito”, landed in New York state on Sunday night time, in line with a monitoring website.The US Lawyer’s Workplace filed fees in April in opposition to Macías, the pinnacle of Los Choneros gang, on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, together with weapons smuggling.A letter filed by the US Division of Justice on Sunday stated Macías was on account of seem in Brooklyn’s federal courtroom on Monday “for an arraignment on the superseding indictment on this case”. His lawyer, Alexei Schacht, informed information companies he would plead not responsible.Macías was faraway from custody at a maximum-security jail in south-west Ecuador on Sunday “for the needs that correspond to the extradition course of”, a spokesperson for the nationwide jail authority, SNAI, informed reporters.Macías, a former taxi driver, agreed in a Quito courtroom final week to be extradited to the US to face the costs.He’s the primary Ecuadoran extradited by his nation since a brand new measure was written into regulation final 12 months, after a referendum by which President Daniel Noboa sought approval for strikes to spice up his crackdown on legal gangs.Ecuador, as soon as a peaceable haven between the world’s two high cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has skilled an increase in violence lately as gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for management.Quickly after Macías escaped from jail in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of inner armed battle and ordered the navy and tanks into the streets to “neutralise” the gangs. The transfer has been criticised by human rights organisations.Macías’s Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan – the world’s largest cocaine exporter – and Balkan mafias, in line with the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.The crime boss’s escape from jail prompted widespread violence and a big navy and police recapture operation, together with authorities posters providing $1m for info resulting in his arrest.On 25 June, Macías was discovered hiding in a bunker hid below flooring tiles in a luxurious house within the fishing port of Manta, the centre of Los Choneros operations.In an interview with CNN on the time, Noboa stated Macías could be extradited, “the earlier, the higher … We’ll gladly ship him and let him reply to the North American regulation.”Greater than 70% of cocaine produced on this planet passes via Ecuador’s ports, in line with authorities knowledge. In 2024, the nation seized a file 294 tonnes of medicine, largely cocaine.