extradited

Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown has been extradited from Dubai to the United States to face a charge of second degree attempted murder relating to a shooting incident in May.

The Miami Police department said the former Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers player was “located in Dubai and was apprehended” before being “extradited to Essex County, NJ (New Jersey), by US Marshals”.

The added Brown was being held there prior to being moved to the Miami-Dade County Jail.

Following an investigation into the incident in May, police issued an arrest warrant in June which alleged Brown took a gun from a security guard and fired two shots at a man he had brawled with earlier on.

No arrests were made at the time and no injuries were reported.

Brown had been detained by police at the time of the incident before being released.

“I was jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewellery and cause physical harm to me,” claimed Brown in a social media post. “Contrary to some video circulating.

“Police temporarily detained me until they received my side of the story and then released me. I went home that night and was not arrested.”

Brown played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and scored a touchdown as they beat the Kansas City Chiefs to win the Super Bowl at the end of the 2020-2021 season.

Oct. 24 (UPI) — A 41-year-old Guatemalan man was extradited to the United States on charges related to a December 2021 crash in Mexico that killed 55 and injured 105 people who were smuggled.

Daniel Zavala Ramos was arrested on Aug. 7 in Boqueron, Guatemala, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The crash took place on Dec. 9, when a tractor-trailer hit a pedestrian bridge, collided with a truck and overturned in the Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. There were survivors.

On the third anniversary of the crash in 2024, Zavala Ramos and five others were charged with human smuggling. Among them, Jorge Agapito Ventura was arrested at his home in Cleveland, with one later in custody last May and three in September.

Zavala Ramos’ name in the indictment was blacked out.

If convicted, they face up to life in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine.

The case was certified as complex.

The six face charges of conspiracy to bring illegal aliens into the U.S, placing life in jeopardy, causing serious bodily harm and resulting in deaths.

“The Justice Department is holding accountable the individuals who we allege preyed on vulnerable migrants and are responsible for this heinous crime that resulted in the deaths of over 50 people and injured over 100 more,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “Human smugglers should heed these charges and arrests as a warning: you will be held accountable for your deadly crimes.”

Zavala Ramas surrendered to U.S. authorities on Tuesday and made his initial court appearance in Laredo, Texas, on Thursday.

From October 2021 to February 203, DOJ said they worked with others smugglers to transport people from Guatemala through Mexico into the United States.

“They allegedly recruited them, collected payment and arranged travel by foot, microbuses, cattle trucks and tractor-trailers,” DOJ said in a news release.

Unaccompanied children were smuggled, DOJ said.

Those being transported were given instructions on what to say if apprehended, authorities said.

Conducting the joint investigation were Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Homeland Security Investigations.

“This DOJ is investigating and prosecuting human smuggling more aggressively than ever before, and Joint Task Force Alpha is the tip of the spear,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in September. “We will not rest until those who profit from the suffering of vulnerable people — including many unaccompanied children — face severe, comprehensive justice.”

The investigation was part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative utilizing the full resources of the DOJ to prevent illegal immigration and eliminate cartels and transnational criminal organizations in an effort to “protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime,” DOJ said.

July 21 (UPI) — Notorious Ecuadorian gang leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar has been extradited to the United States, where he is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday.

President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador confirmed late Sunday that Macias, leader of the Los Choneros gang and who is also known as Fito, has arrived in the United States.

“Goodbye forever, Fito,” Noboa said in a statement to social media. “Fito is now in the USA.”

The U.S. government has yet to confirm Macias’ extradition.

Macias was recaptured in late June amid a controversial crackdown on gang violence in the country, conducted by Noboa using recently acquired powers granted to him by the National Assembly to combat internal armed conflict.

Macias was serving a 34-year sentence for a slew of crimes, including murder, when he escaped from Guayaquil’s regional prison in January, as gang violence was erupting in prisons across the nation.

In response to the violence, Noboa declared the country was in the midst of an “internal armed conflict” and launched a nationwide law enforcement effort targeting drug cartels and gangs after declaring them terrorists.

Macias was then sanctioned by the U.S. State Department in February and charged in a seven-count indictment with drug trafficking-related offenses in Brooklyn, N.Y., in April.

If convicted in the United States, he faces up to life in prison.

Noboa described Macias’ extradition as validation of his crackdown that has received international criticism from human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, over concerns that the new powers pose to the rights of Ecuadorians.

“This is thanks to you, Ecuadorians, who said yes to the referendum. I eagerly await the creative theories that will claim otherwise,” he said.

Adolfo Macias, who was recaptured in June after escaping from a prison last year, will appear in a New York state court on Monday.

Ecuadorean gang leader Adolfo Macias Villamar, also known as “Fito”, is set to appear in a federal court in the United States, where he will plead not guilty to international charges of drug and weapons trafficking, his lawyer says.

The Ecuadorean government on Sunday extradited the notorious drug trafficker, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum-security penitentiary, the country’s prison authority said.

Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, was serving a 34-year sentence at a prison in Guayaquil for a slew of crimes, including drug trafficking, organised crime, and murder.

The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on Sunday night, the report said. His lawyer told the Reuters news agency that Macias “will plead not guilty” before the Brooklyn federal court on Monday.

Details of the handover to the US government and the extradition were not specified. The US government has yet to issue an official statement following the extradition.

The US Attorney’s Office had filed charges in April against Macias on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling.

The former taxi driver turned crime boss agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the US to face the charges.

He is the first Ecuadorean extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought the approval of moves to boost his war on criminal gangs.

Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world’s two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.

Cult following

Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralise” the gangs. The move has been criticised by human rights organisations.

As a drug lord, Macias cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public.

While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian people” while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches.

Macias’s Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan, which is considered the world’s largest cocaine exporter, as well as Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organised Crime Observatory.

His escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a massive military and police recapture operation, including government “wanted” posters offering $1m for information leading to his arrest.

On June 25, Macias was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the centre of operations for Los Choneros. Noboa declared he would be extradited, “the sooner the better”.

“We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law,” Noboa told CNN at the time.

More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador’s ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine.

A BRITISH tourist has been arrested and extradited to Portugal after a teenager was brutally stabbed to death with a broken bottle in Lisbon.

The 27-year-old fugitive was bundled on a flight back to the Portuguese capital and remanded in custody after losing a battle against his forced return.

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He is expected to stand trial over the killing of Daniel Galhanas, 19, who was stabbed in the neck in the city’s party hotspot Bairro Alto in the early hours of October 14, 2023.

Daniel was reportedly attacked while trying to defend a friend during a violent bust-up between rival groups – one of which included British holidaymakers.

Initial reports claimed the teen’s pal had tried to rob the tourist and his friends as part of a gang of thieves targeting foreigners in the area.

But Daniel’s family strongly deny he had any involvement in criminal activity – insisting he was simply trying to help a friend in trouble when he was fatally attacked.

Footage of the incident shows a man hurling a bottle at Daniel’s friend before picking up the broken glass and stabbing Daniel, who stumbles before collapsing in a pool of blood.

He went into cardiac arrest at the scene and was rushed to São José Hospital by volunteer firefighters – but died shortly after from his injuries.

Video from the night shows chaos erupting on the street near Largo do Calhariz, with a dozen people brawling as cars drive past the carnage.

Confirming the dramatic arrest and extradition, Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria said they had worked with UK police and judicial authorities to track down the 27-year-old suspect.

He is believed to have committed first-degree murder in 2023 in Largo do Calhariz, in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto district.

They said the crime took place between 4am and 5am on October 14, following a violent altercation between two rival groups.

“The victim ended up being hit in the neck with a broken glass bottle, which caused serious injuries and led to his death on the spot,” a spokesman said.

Officers said the suspect and his group fled the scene immediately after the attack.

They explained that a probe led by the PJ’s Lisbon and Tagus Valley Directorate resulted in the suspect being identified and an international arrest warrant being issued.

“The suspect, a foreign national, was eventually located and arrested in the United Kingdom, where he travelled to the day after the murder,” they added.

He has since appeared before judicial authorities in Portugal and been remanded in pre-trial custody.

At the time of the horror attack, local reports named Daniel as the young man seen in a disturbing viral video being stabbed with a glass shard before collapsing.

Police told his devastated family they were hunting an “English tourist” in connection with the killing.

A relative said: “An Englishman throws a glass bottle at his friend, who breaks it. The same individual picks up the pieces of glass and hits Daniel, who stood in front of his friend to defend him.

“The group of Englishmen flee and are chased by Daniel’s friends. He was left behind to faint with a friend, as the video shows.”

The family have repeatedly rejected claims Daniel was linked to a gang, saying he was a local boy from Odivelas who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A volunteer fire team who found Daniel bleeding on the street tried to save him – but later had their own vehicle attacked in a separate incident.

Commander Débora Alves said: “I don’t connect one thing to the other, but, shortly after the murder, a man was arrested for having stoned the window of one of our cars.

“The vehicle was inoperable after the attack.”