Gerald Oropeza, a man who stands accused of being one of Peru's most powerful drug dealers, has been extradited from Ecuador.

The BBC reports Oropeza, who had been on the run for five months for smuggling massive amounts of the drug in containers from Peru to Europe, was found on the Ecuadorean beach resort of Salinas this weekend and detained by the authorities.

The notorious drug lord, who was detained while strolling along the beach, did not resist arrest. 

Serious precautions were observed as Oropeza was transferred to Peru; the suspect wore a bulletproof vest as well as a helmet.

Aside from charges of drug trafficking, Oropeza is being investigated for murder.

Peruvian Interior Minister Jose Luis Perez Guadalupe has said that police were able to trace Oropeza to Salinas and arrest him there with the help of Ecuadorean authorities. Local police had become suspicious of Oropeza after he was attacked by gunmen thought to represent a rival gang. The assailants had thrown grenades at his Porsche. He escaped from the attempt on his life unharmed.

Due to his lavish lifestyle Oropeza has been nicknamed "Tony Montana" after the Al Pacino character in the Brian De Palma gangster classic "Scarface."

In 2013, Peru surpassed Colombia as the world's largest producer of cocaine.

According to the Guardian, the Peruvian congress recently voted to authorize military planes to shoot down suspected drug flights.

An article in In Sight Crime, which lists several reasons why Peru has become the number one cocaine producing county in the world, including a “Lack of Coherent Government Strategy” and “Institutional Weakness,” concludes that “In the end, Peru offers much less resistance to international drug trafficking than Colombia at the moment."

The article conceded that "It is perhaps inevitable that organized crime pay more attention to Peru, where the raw material can be harvested, law enforcement and the judiciary is open to corruption, and money laundering is still relatively straightforward.”