How authorities found a drug kingpin's luxurious hideout in Ecuador

CNN

14 hours ago

Ecuadorian forces have revealed how they captured the country's most-wanted man, drug lord Adolfo 'Fito' Macías, more than a year after his brazen prison escape prompted the president to declare an internal armed conflict to crack down on the country's most violent gangs.
After an almost 18-month manhunt for the leader of the criminal group Los Choneros, the Ecuadorian Security Bloc made a breakthrough on June 25. They obtained intelligence that alerted them to a luxurious home in the province of Manabí, the gang's longtime stronghold for drug operations.
Authorities immediately traveled to the area and launched a 10-hour operation to try to find and capture the notorious gangster. To prevent the raid from being thwarted, the military and police shut down access within a 15-block radius so no one could enter or leave the site.
Special teams from the armed forces eventually entered the property to gather more information and take control of the house.
It was a fully equipped villa, featuring a pool, a gym, appliances, a game room, marble-like walls, and features that indicated the property was still under construction.
In one area of the house, there was a perfectly camouflaged hole in the floor, containing a bunker with hidden access and air conditioning.
'Police and armed forces on the scene began conducting a search with instruments to see where alias 'Fito' was hiding,' Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg said.
A surveillance flight had identified an irregular crop field behind the house, so authorities requested the use of excavators to locate the drug lord.
'They started to excavate. As soon as this happened, Fito panicked because if we continued, the roof of his bunker would collapse. At that moment, he opened the hatch, where the military was already located, and climbed out of the hole where he was hiding. That's how we detained him,' Reimberg said.
Soldiers pinned Macías to the ground, pointed weapons at him and ordered him to say his full name out loud.
'Adolfo Macías Villamar,' he said while lying on the floor with his hands behind his back, footage from the army showed.
After the operation, authorities arrested Macías, along with four other men identified as part of his security detail.
Macías was immediately transferred to the Manta Air Base and then to the Guayaquil Air Base. From there, he was taken to the maximum-security La Roca prison, located in the Guayaquil prison complex, behind La Regional prison, from where he escaped in January 2024.
A photo later released by the interior ministry showed the drug lord locked inside his cell.
President Daniel Noboa said Ecuador is working to extradite him to the United States – where he faces drugs and weapons charges – and is awaiting a response from American officials.
Macías is one of Ecuador's most notorious gangsters and is the only founding member of Los Choneros believed to still be alive. In 2011 he was sentenced 'for a string of crimes, including homicides and narcotics trafficking,' according to think tank Insight Crime, but sprung out of jail in February 2013 before being recaptured months later.
Little is known about his life prior to crime, but he gained a reputation for being the gang's money laundering expert while incarcerated for over a decade.
Before he fled prison in 2024, the government was planning on moving Macías to a higher-security facility. Noboa's press secretary told a local channel that the news had likely reached Macías and prompted him to make his escape.