Source: United States Department of Justice
Francisco Manuel Bermúdez Cagua, also known as “Churrón,” will be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo on a superseding indictment charging him with international cocaine distribution conspiracy, international cocaine distribution, and use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking. Bermúdez Cagua is a top leader of Los Choneros, a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) based in Ecuador that is responsible for significant drug trafficking into the United States, firearms trafficking from the United States and acts of extreme violence. He was extradited from Ecuador to the Eastern District of New York on October 29, 2026.