Daniel Salcedo arrives in Ecuador.
Daniel Salcedo, one of the defendants in the organized crime case known as ‘Metastasis’, returned to Ecuador at midnight on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, one day after being detained in Panama. After being expelled from that Central American country and after a five-hour flight, he was received at the Mariscal Sucre international airport in Quito under a strong security device, reinforced by about fifty police officers. Upon his arrival at the capital’s air terminal, after making a stopover at the Medellín airport (Colombia), the Police informed him of his constitutional rights and the reasons for his arrest.
At the time of writing this note, Salcedo was scheduled to be transferred to the Flagrancy Unit and then to a prison determined by the judge, after a medical examination and the preparation of the police report. According to the general director of Police investigations, Freddy Sarzosa, Salcedo had entered Panama on December 29, 2023, from Colombia, and no departures from Ecuador were recorded, suggesting a possible illegal entry into the country.
Salcedo Bonilla’s capture took place on January 16, 2024 in Panama City, when he was detained by the police while driving a private vehicle during a control operation. It was then that it was confirmed that he had an Interpol red notice alert from Ecuador. According to press reports, Salcedo Bonilla was approached while trying to request asylum in Panama. The Interpol red alert was issued on January 11, 2024, a week after Salcedo was linked to the ‘Metastasis’ case.
Along with Salcedo, Álvaro Ponce, former manager of the Hospital del Guasmo in Guayaquil, was also extradited, accused of the illegal sale of medicines. Unlike Salcedo, Ponce will serve his arrest in Guayaquil.
Daniel Salcedo is part of a list of people, including the former president of the Judiciary Council, Wilman Terán (currently in preventive detention), involved in the ‘Metastasis’ case. This case investigates an alleged network of corruption in the judicial, prison and police systems. The Prosecutor’s Office has linked 39 people in this case, which began after the death of the alleged drug trafficker Leandro Norero Tigua in October 2022. The investigations revealed corrupt relationships, illegal negotiations, bribery and manipulation of the judicial system through conversations found in the cell phones of those involved. Salcedo and Christian Romero, Norero’s lawyer, availed themselves of the right to silence during their appearance before the Prosecutor’s Office. On January 5, 2024, the Court sentenced Daniel Salcedo and his brother, Noé, to 13 years in prison for various charges related to the scandal of the sale of medicines in public hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to mention that Daniel Salcedo had already been previously convicted but was released in December 2022 by a judge in Paján, in Manabí, arguing that his prison orders had expired.