Leader of Ecuadorian crime gang moved to maximum-security prison days after candidate’s killing

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s government has moved the leader of one of the country’s most powerful gangs into a maximum-security prison. The transfer Saturday came three days after the assassination of a presidential candidate who had denounced threats from the feared criminal. President Guillermo Lasso says the relocation of Los Choneros leader Adolfo Macías is meant “for the safety of citizens and detainees.” He was shifted from a jail with lighter security to a maximum-security prison in the same large complex of detention facilities in the port city of Guayaquil. Ecuadorian Interior Minister Juan Zapata has described the slaying as a “political crime of a terrorist nature.”