QUITO: An Ecuadoran businessman suspected of masterminding the assassination of a prominent presidential candidate in 2023 will “very soon” be deported from the United States, Ecuadoran Interior Minister John Reimberg said Friday. Fernando Villavicencio, a legislator known for his anti-corruption investigations, was polling in second place when he was shot and killed at a campaign event in Quito 11 days before the presidential election. Xavier Jordan, a US-based Ecuadoran businessman, is one of seven people accused of masterminding the assassination, along with a former minister, a former MP and four members of Ecuador’s Los Lobos (The Wolves) gang. Jordan, who was detained this week by US immigration officials, “financed and planned” the assassination, according to prosecutors. “We believe this will be a short process... He (Jordan) should be on a plane to Ecuador very soon,” Reimberg said in an interview with the Teleamazonas channel. His expected deportation comes hot on the heels of that of former interior minister and fellow accused Jose Serrano, who was sent home from the United States in August. Serrano was one of the most powerful men in the administration of former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017). He is accused of providing Los Lobos with information about Villavicencio’s whereabouts and is being held in a maximum-security Ecuadoran prison. Jordan is being investigated for several crimes, including corruption in the sale of medical supplies during the Covid pandemic. As a lawmaker, Villavicencio had exposed Jordan’s alleged role in the corruption. Five other people have already been sentenced in connection with Villavicencio’s assassination, some receiving prison terms of up to 34 years. The suspected gunman in the attack was shot and killed by the candidate’s bodyguards. Six other suspects allegedly linked to the crime died in prison.