Ecuador foils attack on prison by explosive-laden drone

Ecuadoran officials said they had thwarted an attack Thursday carried out by an explosive-laden drone on La Roca prison, which houses ex-vice president Jorge Glas, arrested in a raid on the Mexican embassy in April.

The drone was intercepted as it flew over the maximum security prison, according to the "Security Block" -- a unit of police and soldiers fighting drug trafficking.

The drone had been flown with the intent of "disabling" the prison, which can hold about 100 inmates, the group said in a statement.

Glas was arrested on corruption charges on April 5 at the Mexican embassy in Quito where he had sought refuge. The raid on the embassy by Ecuadoran security forces to capture him prompted a break in diplomatic ties between the two nations.

Last month, Mexico asked that Glas be allowed to go to a "safe place" in a third country due to his "critical" health condition.

Ecuador's prisons, many of them taken over by drug gangs, have been under military control since January, when President Daniel Noboa declared a state of "internal armed conflict" in the government's showdown with organized crime.

That came after a particularly brutal wave of violence in several parts of Ecuador, sparked by the prison escape of one of the country's most powerful crime bosses.

Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into crisis by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports -- mainly Guayaquil -- to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.