\n<\/p>\n
The Ecuadoran government has extradited the notorious drug trafficker Adolfo Mac\u00edas to the US, more than a year after he escaped from a high-security prison.<\/p>\n
The flight transporting Mac\u00edas, also known as \u201cFito\u201d, landed in New York state on Sunday night, according to a tracking site.<\/p>\n
The US Attorney\u2019s Office filed charges in April against Mac\u00edas, the head of Los Choneros gang, on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling.<\/p>\n
A letter filed by the US Department of Justice on Sunday said Mac\u00edas was due to appear in Brooklyn\u2019s federal court on Monday \u201cfor an arraignment on the superseding indictment in this case\u201d. His lawyer, Alexei Schacht, told news agencies he would plead not guilty.<\/p>\n
Mac\u00edas was removed from custody at a maximum-security prison in south-west Ecuador on Sunday \u201cfor the purposes that correspond to the extradition process\u201d, a spokesperson for the national prison authority, SNAI, told reporters.<\/p>\n
Mac\u00edas, a former taxi driver, agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the US to face the charges.<\/p>\n
He is the first Ecuadoran extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought approval for moves to boost his crackdown on criminal gangs.<\/p>\n
Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world\u2019s two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has experienced a rise in violence in recent years as gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.<\/p>\n
Soon after Mac\u00edas escaped from prison in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of internal armed conflict and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to \u201cneutralise\u201d the gangs. The move has been criticised by human rights organisations.<\/p>\n
Mac\u00edas\u2019s Los Choneros has ties to Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia\u2019s Gulf Clan \u2013 the world\u2019s largest cocaine exporter \u2013 and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.<\/p>\n
The crime boss\u2019s escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a large military and police recapture operation, including government posters offering $1m for information leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n
On 25 June, Mac\u00edas was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the centre of Los Choneros operations.<\/p>\n
In an interview with CNN at the time, Noboa said Mac\u00edas would be extradited, \u201cthe sooner, the better \u2026 We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 70% of cocaine produced in the world passes through Ecuador\u2019s ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mostly cocaine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ecuadoran government has extradited the notorious drug trafficker Adolfo Mac\u00edas to the US, more than a year after he escaped from a high-security prison. The flight transporting Mac\u00edas, also known as \u201cFito\u201d, landed in New York state on Sunday night, according to a tracking site. The US Attorney\u2019s Office filed charges in April against<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[252,4891,4892,4895,4894,4893],"class_list":{"0":"post-11502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-drug","9":"tag-ecuador","10":"tag-extradites","11":"tag-fito","12":"tag-kingpin","13":"tag-notorious"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}