QUITO (Reuters) – One of Ecuador’s most wanted drug traffickers, accused of having close ties with Mexican drug cartels, was captured in a Colombian city close to the border between the two countries, police in Quito said on Thursday.
The criminal, an Ecuadorean identified as a high-ranking leader of the self-proclaimed Nueva Generacion Ecuador – Ecuador New Generation, in English – cartel was captured in the city of Pasto on Wednesday following 18 months of investigation and coordinated actions between Colombia and Ecuador, Ecuadorean police said.
“Wilder S. F. is considered a high value criminal with international connections in Ecuador, Colombia and Europe,” Ecuador’s police said in a statement.
He was arrested on a U.S. warrant, Ecuador’s interior minister, Juan Zapata, said.
The detainee is accused of coordinating drug shipments to the United States via Ecuador and Mexico, in association with Mexican crime gangs the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels, according to Ecuadorean authorities.
“He is one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world,” Zapata told journalists.
Conservative President Guillermo Lasso, an ex-banker, says combating drug traffickers – who use the Andean country as a transit point for drugs bound for the United States and Europe – is a priority for his government.
The arrest warrant was issued by U.S. authorities for the purpose of extradition to the United States, Zapata told journalists, explaining that Colombia does allow for extradition for suspected drug traffickers.
A majority of Ecuadoreans rejected a referendum on Sunday to allow extradition for offenses related to organized crime, among other reforms proposed by Lasso.
The U.S Treasury Department sanctioned Wilder S. F. in February 2022 for contributing to Mexican cartel’s illegal activities, Zapata added.
Ecuadorean authorities also accuse him of being among of those responsible for prison massacres that have plagued the country in recent years.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Leslie Adler)