QUITO (Reuters) -A judge in Ecuador on Monday ordered 30 people to stand trial in a wide-ranging organized crime and drug trafficking case involving the Andean country's judicial system.
Defendants called to trial include the former president of the judicial system's regulator, provincial officials, judges and prosecutors, as well as a former police general and staff from the SNAI prison agency, among others.
Initially, 52 people were charged in the case, but a dozen of them received benefits for collaborating with investigators and received speedy trials and reduced sentences.
While the prosecution sought to bring 37 defendants who have not yet been tried in the case to trial, Judge Manuel Cabrera ruled on Monday that seven should be cleared on a lack of evidence.
President Daniel Noboa, a young business heir who is seeking re-election in 2025, has complained about judges and prosecutors being too lenient on members of criminal gangs, who Noboa says are at war with Ecuador.
The attorney general's office began investigating officials in Ecuador's judicial system after Leandro Norero - who authorities linked to drug trafficking gangs - was killed in prison in 2022 while jailed for money laundering.
A former legislator for ex-president Rafael Correa's party, Citizens' Revolution, is a fugitive in the case.
The prosecution alleges that the defendants used money obtained from illegal activities led by Norero to strategically move officials in the justice system and obtain legal benefits.
The operation, called Metastasis, unearthed a separate corruption case at the provincial court in Guayas province, which is being investigated by the attorney general's office.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Kylie Madry and Michael Perry)
