Ecuador has extradited the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang who relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business to the United States.

A prosecutor in Ecuador who was investigating an attack on the set of a public television channel by a group of armed men last week has been slain.

José Adolfo Macías Villamar, leader of one of Ecuador's most dangerous gangs, was discovered missing from his cell in a prison where he was serving a sentence for drug trafficking.