QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuadorean gang leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as "Fito," is set to appear in U.S. federal court on Monday, where he will plead not guilty to international charges of drug and weapons trafficking,

José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is "Fito," escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and was recaptured June.

Former mechanic and taxi driver Adolfo Macias rose from a life of petty crime to the top of Ecuador's drug gang hierarchy, using extreme violence to try and submit an entire country to his will."The defendant and his co-conspirators flooded the United States and other countries with drugs and used extreme measures of violence in their quest for power and control,