Ecuador dismantles gang linked to Mexican cartel

Ecuador has dismantled a criminal gang with suspected ties to Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel and arrested an intelligence chief in the military who served as its ringleader, Interior Minister Jose Serrano announced Friday. Serrano said in a televised announcement that the operation carried out Thursday night led to the capture of six people, including Telmo Castro, an Ecuadorian army commander of intelligence, who served as the head of the organized crime gang. Anti-drug agents also seized some 300 kilos of illicit drugs, a light aircraft and grenades. "This gang and its ringleader Castro were very likely working with the Sinaloa cartel, and we could even say they were the ones who negotiated and trafficked the most amount of drugs with the Sinaloa cartel," the minister said. The dismantling of the gang follows an eight-month long investigation by Ecuador's National Anti-Narcotics Bureau, in conjunction with the Prosecutor's Office. "We have succeeded in striking perhaps the biggest blow against criminals related to drug trafficking in recent years in this country," said Serrano. About the gang's area of operations, Serrano said, "we could say they had their base in the province of Los Rios .... we could say they were the cartel's biggest supplier of drugs from Ecuador. " Castro, who was found in possession of drugs during an operation in 2009, was released however, Serrano said, hoping this time the case would be different. "We have struck an important blow, now we are going to advance through a legal process in coordination with the Prosecutor's Office so that this individual (Castro) will this time be indicted, convicted and punished. That is the crux of the matter," said Serrano.