QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent gang who relied on hit men, bribes and military weapons to do business.

José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is “Fito,” escaped from an Ecuadoran prison in January 2024 and was recaptured late last month. In April, a U.S. attorney indicted him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States.

Macías “was removed from the La Roca Detention Center under the custody of the National Police and Armed Forces for the appropriate proceedings in the context of an extradition process,” Ecuador’s government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists.

Details of the handover were not specified.

A photograph released by SNAI showed Macías wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location.

The Ecuadoran will appear Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, “where he will plead not guilty,” Macías’ lawyer Alexei Schacht told the Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison to be determined, Schacht added.

The extradition decision came after the United States sent a document to Ecuador offering guarantees for the respect of the rights of the 45-year-old criminal leader.

Since 2020, Macías has led Los Choneros, a criminal organization that emerged in the 1990s. The gang employed people to buy firearms and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador, according to April’s indictment. Cocaine would flow into the U.S. with the help of Mexican cartels. Together, the groups controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador, violently targeting law enforcement, politicians, lawyers and civilians who stood in the way.

Macías escaped from a Guayaquil prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder. He was recaptured a year and a half later on the country’s central coast.

Macías has cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public in his home country. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian people” while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to luxuries including liquor and roosters for cockfighting matches.

Macías is the first Ecuadoran to be extradited to the U.S. from Ecuador, prison authorities said. Two other Ecuadoran drug traffickers have previously been handed over to the United States from Colombia, where they were arrested.

Molina writes for the Associated Press.