Ecuadoran officials said they had thwarted an attack Thursday carried out by an explosive-laden drone on La Roca prison, which houses ex-vice president Jorge Glas, arrested in a raid on the Mexican embassy in April.
The drone was intercepted as it flew over the maximum security prison, according to the “Security Block” — a unit of police and soldiers fighting drug trafficking.
The drone had been flown with the intent of “disabling” the prison, which can hold about 100 inmates, the group said in a statement.
Glas was arrested on corruption charges on April 5 at the Mexican embassy in Quito where he had sought refuge. The raid on the embassy by Ecuadoran security forces to capture him prompted a break in diplomatic ties between the two nations.
Last month, Mexico asked that Glas be allowed to go to a “safe place” in a third country due to his “critical” health condition.
Ecuador’s prisons, many of them taken over by drug gangs, have been under military control since January, when President Daniel Noboa declared a state of “internal armed conflict” in the government’s showdown with organized crime.
That came after a particularly brutal wave of violence in several parts of Ecuador, sparked by the prison escape of one of the country’s most powerful crime bosses.
Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into crisis by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports — mainly Guayaquil — to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.
sp/val/mlr/nro
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66da2a9eeddc4973a0fd1843ebaae0f0&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Fecuador-foils-attack-prison-explosive-202658078.html&c=11930695664891949726&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-09-05 09:26:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
