Police said Antonio Saca was sent to the Mariona prison, an overcrowded facility on San Salvador's northern outskirts that holds 5,000 inmates -- four times the number it was designed to incarcerate.

He was transferred with six other people suspected with him of pocketing $246 million in public funds during his 2004-2009 mandate, the national police service said on its Twitter account.

They had been held in cells in the police's counternarcotics division, but a court ordered their move in line with a request from state prosecutors.

Saca was arrested in October with his former private secretary and former communications secretary, among others.

They are charged with embezzlement, criminal association and money laundering.