Prison and fines for a key figure in the largest drug trafficking infiltration case in Ecuador

Ecuadorian justice sentenced Mayra Salazar, considered a key player in the largest case of drug trafficking penetration in Ecuador’s justice system, politics and police, to 15 months in prison on Wednesday, in addition to the confiscation of assets and payment of fines. called Metastasisin which around fifty people are being prosecuted.

The judge, Manuel Cabrera, declared Salazar as the direct author of the crime of organized crime, and in accordance with the agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, he also imposed a fine of 5,520 dollars, the payment of compensation of 11,040 dollars, and the confiscation of previously seized assets. The Prosecutor’s Office reported that Salazar must also pay 6,300 dollars for the return of money that she received in her accounts.

Salazar, a 35-year-old journalist, benefited from a 75% reduced sentence after accepting an abbreviated trial, after providing information that the Prosecutor’s Office considers crucial, including documents and contacts that show links between state authorities and organized crime.

This information led to the prosecution of figures such as Wilman Terán, former president of the Judicial Council, the administrative and control body of the judicial function. Terán is currently in preventive detention.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office, in its X account, formerly Twitter, said that Salazar operated from the Provincial Court of Guayas, between May and October 2022, without having been a judicial official – although she presented herself as a public relations officer for the entity -, maintained direct contact with the drug trafficker Leandro Norero and “collaborated from the administrative sphere, to favor the impunity of the criminal organization” by negotiating with judges willing to receive bribes.

Salazar arrived at the hearing at the National Court of Justice in Quito on Wednesday in an armored vehicle and under heavy security; the judge ordered that the press not record the hearing as an additional measure of protection.

Also linked to this emblematic case are police general Pablo Ramírez, former director of the country’s penitentiary system; Colombian Claudia Garzón, part of a proposal for pacification in prisons; seven judges, several prosecutors, former assemblyman Ronny Aleaga —from the party of former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017)— and private lawyers, among others.

Eight defendants were previously tried and received reduced sentences of up to 40 months, after providing effective cooperation. The Metástasis case began after the murder of the powerful drug trafficker Leandro Norero, in October last year in a prison in the central Andes of the country.

The Prosecutor’s Office extracted hundreds of conversations from Norero’s cell phones, which have led to two other important cases: Purga, which investigates the alleged relationship between politics, justice and drug trafficking, and Plaga, which investigates an illicit structure that, it is presumed, illegally paid judges to release high-risk prisoners, or detainees such as former Vice President Jorge Glas.

Salazar has been in prison for seven months, since December 2023; with today’s court decision, the defendant could be released in March of next year.

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