QUITO, Ecuador (AP) \u2014 Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang who relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business.<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 Adolfo Mac\u00edas Villamar<\/a>, whose nickname is \u201cFito,\u201d escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and was recaptured late June. In April, a U.S. Attorney indicted<\/a> him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States.<\/p>\n Mac\u00edas \u201cwas 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,\u201d Ecuador\u2019s government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists.<\/p>\n Details of the handover were not specified.<\/p>\n A photograph released by SNAI showed Mac\u00edas wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location.<\/p>\n The Ecuadorian will appear Monday before Brooklyn\u2019s federal court \u201cwhere he will plead not guilty,\u201d Mac\u00edas\u2019 lawyer Alexei Schacht told The Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison yet to be determined, Schacht added. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Since 2020, Mac\u00edas has led \u201cLos Choneros,\u201d 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\u2019s indictment. Cocaine would flow into the United States 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.<\/p>\n