According to chats obtained from his mobile phone, Leandro Norero had a 50-member judicial and accounting team at his service. The payroll cost USD 50,000 per month.
Cristian Romero, Leandro Norero’s former lawyer, along with the rest of his team, after a hearing to link him to the money laundering case, on August 22, 2022, in Guayaquil.
After his arrest, in May 2022, drug trafficker Leandro ‘El Patrón’ Norero began an incessant task to seek, at all costs, his impunity. He wanted him, his wife and his brothers to be released from the money laundering and arms trafficking cases in which they were accused.
For this, ‘El Patrón’ put together a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, accountants and experts. In charge of the entire operation was Helive Angulo, alias ‘Estimado’, who served as an administrator of Norero’s assets and money.
The size of the team was revealed by Norero and Angulo during a conversation they had on August 9, 2022, through the Threema messaging application.
That day, ‘Estimado’ asked Norero for USD 50,000 to pay the two teams. A person identified as ‘Santiago’ was in charge of the accountants and Cristian Romero was in charge of the lawyers.
Angulo explained to Norero that each professional charged USD 1,200, that is, the USD 50,000 was enough to cover the fees of 41 professionals. They were joined by the bosses: Angulo, Romero and Xavier Novillo, alias Novita, another lawyer, who coordinated the team in Guayas.
In addition to the three ‘chiefs’, the lawyers Armando Flor, Kevin Prendes, Sofía García and César Ácaro, who were in charge of presenting briefs and litigating in minor hearings, are prosecuted in the case.
But there are still many names that are not known.
The experts in the National Court
The work of Norero’s legal and accounting team was divided by province, but also operated on a national scale.
Angulo, Novillo and Romero were in charge of the national coordination. The three – in addition – planned to go to the National Court of Justice so that Norero and his brothers could be released with a habeas corpus whose processing, according to the chats, was irregular.
Romero tried to do it through Wilman Terán, identified as ‘ Devil ‘, and who after the explosion of the Metastasis case resigned from the Presidency of the Judiciary Council. Romero sold himself – despite his short career – as a specialist in the highest body of ordinary justice.
The provincial ‘distribution’
According to the information in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office, Cristian Romero also coordinated what was happening in Santo Domingo. Under his advice, the drug trafficker would have reached judges Emerson Curipallo and Ángel Lindado; as well as the prosecutor Víctor Alcívar, alias ‘Pillo good people’.
Using bribes, Romero would have gotten Curipallo to release former vice president Jorge Glas and the hitmen alias ‘Madrid’ and ‘Cuyuyuy’. While ‘Pillo good people’ alerted the group of new operations or raids.
Romero also had an impact in Cotopaxi, where Norero and his brothers Israel Norero and Johanna Zambrano were detained. He was in charge of reaching judges Santiago Zumba and José Luis Segovia and paying them to free them. The offer was not fulfilled, and the bribes were returned.
In Guayas, although Romero acted in the hearings with his team, the coordination was in charge of Xavier Novillo (Novita). This subject met with judges and prosecutors like Ronald Guerrero, alias ‘ Mummy ‘, to offer them bribes and agree on strategies.
While in Manabí, Helive Angulo acted directly. In the chats, ‘Estimado’ boasted that Carlos Zambrano, former president of the Court of that province, was under his control. As well as Banny Molina, the judge who ordered the failed release of Glas and Daniel Salcedo.
Lawyer Connections
When he was arrested, through Angulo and Novillo, Norero expanded his legal team and hired Cristian Romero and his associates.
Despite being 32 years old and having had eight years of professional career, this lawyer had rapid growth, participated in important cases and defended public figures.
One of his first appearances was at the beginning of 2020. Romero assumed the defense of former Vice President Jorge Glas in the 2012-2016 Bribery case. In that process, the illegal financing of Alianza PAIS was investigated. Glas and Rafael Correa were sentenced to eight years in prison.
But the relations with Correismo do not end there. In April 2021, on his social networks, Romero published photographs of a meeting with Virgilio Hernández, current Andean parliamentarian for the Citizen Revolution, and Viviana Veloz, vice president of the Assembly. He spoke of “great challenges” together.
While he defended Glas and met with more Correismo figures, Romero was not exclusive. He also worked in Guayaquil with the Bucaram family.
The lawyer and his team defended former president Abdalá Bucaram, his sons – ‘Dalo’, Jacobo and Michel – and his daughter-in-law Gabriela Pazmiño from accusations of alleged hospital corruption during the pandemic.
In one of the chats of the Metastasis case, on June 21, 2022, Romero assured Norero that “the largest trial in the country was against the Bucaram Family and I won all 12 cases, and more than 14 habeas corpus.”
However, once Romero began working with Norero, ‘El Patrón’ asked the lawyer several times to stay away from the Bucarams and work exclusively for him. Those connections bothered the drug trafficker.
He also angrily claimed him when he was linked to Glas. Lawyers Jonathan Aguinda, Royman Litardo and Hugo Lara participated in the habeas corpus with which Glas’ failed release was ordered. The latter also defended, Daniel Salcedo, close to the Bucarams and Norero.
Norero told Romero that he had to take care of who he used in his cases, because he did not want to be associated with anyone. Those same lawyers had filed habeas corpus on behalf of Norero and his brothers.
Romero apologized and offered that it would never happen again.
