QUITO, Ecuador - Britain's former honorary consul in the Ecuadoran port city of Guayaquil, Colin Armstrong, was released "safe and sound" after being kidnapped over the weekend, officials in the South American country said Wednesday.

"Our units released citizen Collin A., kidnapped days earlier in (the province of) #LosRios. At the moment he is safe and sound. There are 9 apprehended," police commander Cesar Zapata posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The British ambassador in Quito celebrated Armstrong's release.

"We are delighted that Colin Armstrong OBE, our former honorary consul in Guayaquil, has been safely released", Chris Campbell said on X, referring to the Order of the British Empire, a top honor.

Armstrong was kidnapped at dawn Saturday on a farm he owns in Baba, a small city in Los Rios province.

Honorary consuls are generally not career officials but are often nationals of the sending country living in cities distant from the capital.

They frequently conduct some consular duties on a part-time basis while also holding a job of their own.

Armstrong's abduction came amid a sharp rise in drug-related violence in parts of Ecuador.

In recent years the country -- situated between world-leading cocaine producers Colombia and Peru -- has become a center for foreign and domestic drug cartels blamed for a series of massacres, kidnappings and extortions.

Gangs now control some prisons, and violence in the streets has surged. Since 2018, the national homicide rate has more than quadrupled, soaring from six to 26 per 100,000 inhabitants.

President Daniel Noboa, a Guayaquil native who took office in late November, has promised to crack down on drug traffickers.

His election followed a violence-marred campaign season in which eight politicians, including a mayor, were killed.

As a large port city, Guayaquil has increasingly been used by cartels exporting drugs both to the United States and Europe.