Byron Moreno: “Being in need made me commit a lot of mistakes”

Byron Moreno

During an interview on the sensationalist  television program “En Carne Propia”, broadcasted by Channel One, Ecuadorian former soccer referee, Byron Moreno, confessed the reasons of his trip to the U.S. with his body wrapped with drugs.

Moreno revealed that a family medical emergency led him to make mistakes. “A cardiac complication of my son in 2005, led me to seek money”. That’s why he was forced to sell possessions to pay for cardiac operations required for her son, to the point of borrowing money from people of questionable origin.

“I got into debt for my son. He suffered a cardiac problem and I had to get the money to pay for the surgery, so I sold everything I had”.

Moreno said he turned to look for money through a loan, which he could not pay. Following threats by their collectors he had to find other methods to find easy money because if  he fail to do so, he said, the life of his wife and son would be in danger.

“I needed the money for a medical emergency. I could not pay the debt, they threatened me and I had to take the assignment.”

The World Cup former referee explained that he had arrived at the airport (José Joaquin de Olmedo) with the drug attached to the body, and that at times he had thought to get rid of it. However, he had no choice but to transport the drug.  The financial need, as well as the death threats, was added the news that his wife was pregnant; that was why Moreno could not decline what was planned.

Moreno said that during his time in prison in the United States, he never thought about suicide and rather he “figured out” how to get the money and send it to his sick child in Ecuador. “I ironed the uniforms of the prisoners, cleaned the cells and sold fruit tin order to send money to my son,” he revealed.

Moreno concluded saying that he had no idea of how the alkaloid looked or tasted, because he never tested nor knew any drug during his lifetime. He said, that beyond transport the drugs, someone –who wasn’t identified- wanted him to fall into the trap.

Byron Moreno was arrested on September 20, 2010 at John F. Kennedy airport in New York with 6.2 kilos of heroin, worth $ 400,000, distributed in bags attached to his body. Moreno arrived in the country (Ecuador) on December 3, 2012 from the United States after serving a sentence of 2 and a half years for the crime of drug trafficking.