Members of a court are meeting, expected to hand down sentences for people indicted in the wide-ranging "Metastasis" organized crime and drug trafficking case involving the Andean country's judicial system, in Quito, Ecuador November 25, 2024. REUTERS/David Diaz Duque
QUITO (Reuters) - An Ecuadorean court on Monday convicted 20 of 21 total defendants in a wide-ranging organized crime and drug trafficking case involving the Andean country's judicial system, sentencing them to between 40 months and 10 years in prison.
Those convicted in the Metastasis case, as it is known, include the former president of the judicial system's regulator, judges, prosecutors, police officers, a prison guard and the former director of the SNAI prison agency, among others.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julie Symmes Cobb and Kylie Madry)
