Ecuador's most-wanted gang leader ‘Fito' captured
QUITO: Ecuador's president announced Wednesday that the country's most-wanted fugitive, Los Choneros gang leader 'Fito,' had been recaptured over a year after his escape from prison triggered a wave of violence.
'We have done our part to proceed with Fito's extradition to the United States, we are awaiting their response,' Daniel Noboa wrote on X.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as Fito, escaped custody in Ecuador in early 2024 and American prosecutors charged him, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling.
Macias Villamar's January 2024 escape resulted in a surge of gang-related violence in Ecuador that lasted days and left about 20 people dead.
Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency in nearly a third of its provinces to quell the violence, but the drug lord was at-large until Wednesday's announcement.
The months-long manhunt ended with the president stating Fito was in the custody of special military forces fighting narcotics trafficking.
The army and police reported that he was captured during a 10-hour operation in Manta, a fishing port in western Ecuador considered a stronghold for his gang.
Fito's hideout evoked scenes from a movie thriller — local media reported that officers lifted a trap door in floor tiles of a luxury home to discover the outlaw hiding in a bunker.
The US Embassy congratulated Quito on the arrest, posting in Spanish on its X account that Washington 'supports Ecuador in its efforts to combat transnational crime for the security of the region.'
Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world's two top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as enemy gangs vie for control and establish ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
Macias Villamar is the leader of Los Choneros, the leading criminal gang in a country plagued by organized crime.
Gang wars largely played out inside the country's prisons, where Macias Villamar wielded immense control.
He had been held since 2011, serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
When he escaped, Macias Villamar was also considered a suspect in ordering the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio.
In the hours after the drug lord's escape, prison riots broke out and four police officers were taken hostage, where one was forced to read a threatening message to Noboa.
Armed men wearing balaclavas also took over a television station during a live broadcast, forcing the terrified crew to the ground and firing shots.
Soon after, Noboa announced the country was in a state of 'internal armed conflict' and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to 'neutralize' the gangs.
US prosecutors allege his gang worked with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel to control key drug trafficking routes between South America and the United States.
Ecuador's government had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.
If convicted, Fito faces life in prison.
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Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Ecuador reveals how notorious gang leader ‘Fito' hid in his hometown for 18 months after jailbreak
QUITO: Ever since Ecuador's most notorious gang leader vanished from his prison cell in January 2024, authorities have been searching the world, offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Adolfo Macias, alias 'Fito.' It turned out the country's most wanted man was hiding out at a family member's mansion in his own hometown. Ecuadorian security forces recaptured the kingpin Wednesday at an underground bunker beneath a marble-walled house in the port city of Manta, some 260 kilometers southwest of the capital of Quito. In remarks to reporters Thursday, authorities revealed further details about their efforts to locate Macias and the hiding place where he spent his final weeks as a fugitive. Authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for Macias, who was serving a 34-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder in a Guayaquil prison before his shock escape. Macias is also wanted by the United States on accusations of trafficking drugs and smuggling weapons. A month ago, authorities closed in on the drug trafficker's family, arresting several of his relatives, seizing their assets and raiding their businesses. Interior Minister John Reimberg described the crackdown on Macias' family as a 'psychological operation' crucial to security forces' efforts to locate the notorious leader of Ecuador's 'Los Choneros' gang. 'It contributes to a person's conflict, their loss of control,' he said in a press conference Thursday. But what put Ecuadorian intelligence on his trail was the unusual behavior of a municipal transit official in Manta, who stopped showing up to work several months ago. Surveilling the official led intelligence services to Macias' inner circle, according to Victor Ordonez, a national police commander. Authorities discovered that this official frequented a swanky three-story building equipped with an indoor pool, well-appointed gym and game room and outfitted with gleaming marble floors and walls. Furniture was wrapped in plastic and flat screen TVs were still in their boxes. All over the house were statues of Saint Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes venerated by Mexican drug traffickers. Los Choneros is believed to have been one of the first from Ecuador to forge ties with Mexican drug cartels. Ordonez also said that authorities received final confirmation that Macias would be in the house at the time of the 10-hourlong raid from his young daughter. In the predawn darkness Wednesday, hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and security officers stormed the mansion and blocked off the surrounding streets. But Macias was nowhere to be found. Security forces flew drones overhead and noticed that the land around the house appeared uneven, with suspiciously altered vegetation that suggested infrastructure and possible ventilation below the surface. The fugitive was hunkered down in an air-conditioned bunker that could only be accessed through a small hatch, its entrance concealed by a cement and tile floor in the laundry room and openable only from the inside. Police brought in heavy machinery to start excavating, and when the roof above his head began to cave in Macias recognized that capture was inevitable, Minister Reimberg said. The alternative was being crushed to death. 'When this happened, Fito panicked,' he said. 'He opened the hatch where military and police personnel were located and left the hole.' Within moments, Ecuador's most powerful drug lord was writhing on the ground with a gun pointed at his head, forced to repeat his full name out loud. Shirtless and with an unkempt beard, a haggard 'Fito' was shepherded outside by a squad of officers and brought to the country's highest-security prison, known as La Roca, or the Rock, in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city. Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa announced after the capture that the Macias would be extradited to the US to face prosecution. He was indicted in New York City in April on charges of importing and distributing thousands of pounds of cocaine in the US. 'We have done our part,' Reimberg said. 'I expect the US extradition request to arrive in the next few hours or at most the next few days.'
Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Ecuador's most wanted drug lord captured in 'underground bunker'
QUITO — Police in Ecuador have recaptured the country's most wanted fugitive, drug lord Adolfo Macías Villamar. Macías, also known by the alias "Fito", is the leader of Los Choneros, a powerful criminal gang which is blamed for Ecuador's transformation from a tourist haven to a country with one of the highest murder rates in the region. He is also suspected of having ordered the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023. Police tracked him down to what they described as an underground bunker below a luxury home in the city of Manta. A police spokesman said no shots were fired in the 10-hour joint operation by police and the military. A large number of officers first monitored and surrounded the three-storey home in the Monterrey neighborhood of Manta, on the Ecuadorian they stormed the building, they found a sliding trap door, disguised to look like part of the stone floor, from which metal stairs led to Fito's underground "bunker" was fitted out with air conditioning, a bed, a fan and a house itself boasted a gym with a punching bag and a games room where he could play pool and table reportedly put up no resistance and was transferred by air to the port city of Guayaquil, where several of Ecuador's largest prisons are of his arrival in Guayaquil shows him wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops while being led by armed security officers to a parked SUV before being transferred to the La Roca maximum-security President Daniel Noboa praised the security forces for capturing Fito and said that he would be extradited to the US, where he has been charged with cocaine escaped from La Regional prison in Guayaquil in January 2024 with the help of at least two guards, prompting global media triggered a wave of deadly prison riots, in which guards were taken hostage and which prompted Noboa to declare a state of Fito was already notorious prior to his escape. During his time in prison - while serving a 34-year sentence for murder and drug trafficking - he rose to the top of the Los Choneros gang after its previous leader was behind bars, he co-ordinated the gang's activities, which include drug trafficking and is also suspected of having ordered the murder of politician Fernando Villavicencio, who was gunned down at a campaign rally just days before the 2023 Fito's leadership, Los Choneros forged links with Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel, an alliance which experts say has led to the gruesome tactics commonly used by Mexican cartels - such as decapitations and mutilations - spreading to before his prison escape, he also appeared in a narcocorrido - a slick music video in which his daughter glorifies her father's criminal video, which was partly recorded inside the prison, shows him caressing a fighting cockerel and freely chatting to fellow gang leader's escape in 2024 was a blow to Noboa's government. The Ecuadorian leader had assumed office in November 2023 after being elected on a promise to combat the growing power of the Wednesday, Noboa said that the drug lord's capture was proof his approach - which includes bringing in laws giving him sweeping powers to declare an "armed internal conflict", and which allows police to conduct searches without a warrant - was working."More [drug lords] will fall, we will regain [control of] the country," he posted on X. — BBC
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
Ecuador's most-wanted gang leader ‘Fito' captured
QUITO: Ecuador's president announced Wednesday that the country's most-wanted fugitive, Los Choneros gang leader 'Fito,' had been recaptured over a year after his escape from prison triggered a wave of violence. 'We have done our part to proceed with Fito's extradition to the United States, we are awaiting their response,' Daniel Noboa wrote on X. Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as Fito, escaped custody in Ecuador in early 2024 and American prosecutors charged him, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling. Macias Villamar's January 2024 escape resulted in a surge of gang-related violence in Ecuador that lasted days and left about 20 people dead. Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency in nearly a third of its provinces to quell the violence, but the drug lord was at-large until Wednesday's announcement. The months-long manhunt ended with the president stating Fito was in the custody of special military forces fighting narcotics trafficking. The army and police reported that he was captured during a 10-hour operation in Manta, a fishing port in western Ecuador considered a stronghold for his gang. Fito's hideout evoked scenes from a movie thriller — local media reported that officers lifted a trap door in floor tiles of a luxury home to discover the outlaw hiding in a bunker. The US Embassy congratulated Quito on the arrest, posting in Spanish on its X account that Washington 'supports Ecuador in its efforts to combat transnational crime for the security of the region.' Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world's two top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as enemy gangs vie for control and establish ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels. Macias Villamar is the leader of Los Choneros, the leading criminal gang in a country plagued by organized crime. Gang wars largely played out inside the country's prisons, where Macias Villamar wielded immense control. He had been held since 2011, serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder. When he escaped, Macias Villamar was also considered a suspect in ordering the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio. In the hours after the drug lord's escape, prison riots broke out and four police officers were taken hostage, where one was forced to read a threatening message to Noboa. Armed men wearing balaclavas also took over a television station during a live broadcast, forcing the terrified crew to the ground and firing shots. Soon after, Noboa announced the country was in a state of 'internal armed conflict' and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to 'neutralize' the gangs. US prosecutors allege his gang worked with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel to control key drug trafficking routes between South America and the United States. Ecuador's government had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture. If convicted, Fito faces life in prison.
