Ecuador's biggest drug lord 'Fito' extradited to US
21 Jul 2025 01:19pm
Handout picture released by the Ecuadorean Prison Authority SNAI shows drug trafficker Adolfo Macias being escorted out of La Roca prison to be extradited to US in Guayaquil on July 20, 2025. The Ecuadoran government on July 20, 2025, extradited Macias, alias "Fito," to the US, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum security penitentiary, the country's prison authority said. (Photo by Handout / SNAI / AFP)
QUITO - The Ecuadoran government on Sunday extradited notorious drug trafficker Adolfo Macias, alias "Fito," to the United States, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum security penitentiary, the country's prison authority said.
The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on Sunday night, according to the Flightradar tracking site.
The US Attorney's Office filed charges in April against Macias, the head of the "Los Choneros" gang, on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling.
A letter filed by the US Department of Justice on Sunday said Macias was due to appear in a federal court on Monday "for an arraignment on the Superseding Indictment in this case."
The drug lord on Sunday was removed from custody at a maximum security prison in Ecuador's southwest "for the purposes that correspond to the extradition process," Ecuador's prison authority SNAI said in a statement to reporters.
Macias, a former taxi driver turned crime boss, agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the United States to face the charges.
He is the first Ecuadoran extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought the approval of moves to boost his war on criminal gangs.
'Sooner the better'
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 with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.
Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of "internal armed conflict" and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to "neutralize" the gangs.
The move has been criticized by human rights organizations.
Macias's Los Choneros has ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Colombia's Gulf Clan -- the world's largest cocaine exporter -- and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.
The crime boss' escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a massive military and police recapture operation, including government "wanted" posters offering $1 million for information leading to his arrest.
On June 25, Macias was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the center of operations for Los Choneros. Noboa declared he would be extradited, "the sooner the better."
"We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law," Noboa told CNN at the time.
More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador's ports, according to government data.
In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine. - AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Venezuelan makeup artist returns home, describes torture during El Salvador detention
Andry Hernandez, who was held for months in an El Salvador prison after the U.S. alleged he was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, talks with friends at his home following his release, in Tachira, Venezuela July 23, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez CAPACHO, Venezuela (Reuters) -A makeup artist who became the face of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants deported by the U.S. to El Salvador's most notorious prison arrived home to his family on Wednesday after what he described as "an encounter with torture and death." Andry Hernandez, 32, and the other detainees returned to Venezuela on Friday as part of a prisoner exchange, after spending four months in El Salvador's CECOT prison, where they and the Venezuelan government allege they were beaten, shot with rubber projectiles, held in dark cells, and served rotten food. "Many of our fellows have wounds from the nightsticks; they have fractured ribs, fractured fingers and toes, marks from the handcuffs, others have marks on their chests, on their face ... from the projectiles," Hernandez told journalists at his home in Capacho, near the Colombian border. U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport the men, who his government accuses of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, without normal immigration procedures. The deportations sparked a legal battle led by civil rights groups. Families and lawyers of many of the men have denied they have gang ties. Hernandez, detained at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, had an active asylum case when he was deported to CECOT. His case was widely covered in the media. Advocates in the U.S. have voiced concerns that Hernandez, who is gay, faces risks in Venezuela due to LGBTQ persecution. The U.S. alleged Tren de Aragua membership based on his tattoos: crowns on his wrists that read "mom"and "dad." Hernandez denied the allegation. In a video broadcast on state television on Monday, Hernandez alleged sexual abuse by the guards at CECOT, and Venezuela's attorney general has said his office will investigate El Salvador President Nayib Bukele over alleged abuses. Bukele's office has not responded to requests for comment on the alleged torture. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson has referred allegations of mistreatment to El Salvador's government, while the U.S. Department of Homeland Security dismissed the allegations of abuse on Tuesday, calling the men "criminal, illegal gang members." Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the abuse allegations. Hernandez's parents, Felipe Hernandez and Alexi Romero, have been anxiously awaiting his return since Tuesday, when he called to say he was on the way from Caracas, some 820 kilometers (510 miles) away. Hernandez said he was most happy to see them and his brother, but was also touched to find out that friends and family held vigils on his behalf and campaigned for his return. "It fills me with so much peace, so much comfort, so much tranquility that I was never alone, from day one. There were many people who worried for me," he said. (Reporting by Tathiana Ortiz in Capacho, additional reporting by Kristina Cooke in San FranciscoWriting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Rod Nickel)
New Straits Times
a day ago
- New Straits Times
Ecuador's 'Fito': From taxi driver to drug lord to an American jail
FORMER mechanic and taxi driver Adolfo Macias rose from a life of petty crime to the top of Ecuador's drug gang hierarchy, using extreme violence to try and submit an entire country to his will. His reign of terror has seemingly come to an end, however, as the 45-year-old head of Ecuador's "Los Choneros" gang pleaded "not guilty" to drug and weapons charges in a New York court Monday. In January 2024, Macias – alias "Fito" – made international headlines when he escaped from a prison in Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil – a hub for drug exports. He had been serving a 34-year sentence for weapons possession, narcotics trafficking, organised crime and murder. Jail did little to check Macias's ambitions: he earned his law degree behind bars and continued pulling the strings of the criminal underworld. Videos have emerged of him holding wild prison parties, some with fireworks. In one recording, a mariachi band and the drug lord's daughter perform a narco-glorifying ballad in the prison yard while he laughingly strokes a fighting cock. Fito exercised "significant internal control over the prison," the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) noted in a 2022 report following a meeting with the gang leader. His escape prompted the government to deploy the military, to the anger of Los Choneros, which unleashed a wave of violence in response. The gang detonated car bombs, held prison guards hostage and stormed a television station during a live broadcast in several days of running battles that prompted President Daniel Noboa to declare a "state of internal armed conflict." In June this year, a massive military and police operation dragged a bedraggled Fito from a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, where he was born. No shots were fired, and the government was quick to release photos of the overweight, dishevelled Macias appearing rather less dangerous than his deadly reputation. On Sunday, he was put on a New York-bound plane in Guayaquil wearing shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet, and on Monday he appeared in court. He was smiling. Macias became leader of Los Choneros in 2020, at a time when it was transitioning away from petty crime and establishing links with the big-league Colombian and Mexican drug cartels. "The defendant served for years as the principal leader of Los Choneros, a notoriously violent transnational criminal organization, and was a ruthless and infamous drug and firearms trafficker," US attorney Joseph Nocella said in a statement ahead of Monday's hearing. "The defendant and his co-conspirators flooded the United States and other countries with drugs and used extreme measures of violence in their quest for power and control," he added. Macias has also been linked to the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio at a political rally in 2023. Villavicencio had accused Los Choneros of threatening his life. The gang is one of dozens blamed for bringing bloodshed to Ecuador, once one of the world's safest nations, but now one of its deadliest. The country is wedged between the world's top two cocaine exporters – Colombia and Peru – and more than 70 percent of all worldwide production now passes through Ecuador's ports, according to government data. Under Macias's leadership, Los Choneros "have leveraged their connections and sway... to become a key link in the transnational cocaine supply chain," according to an analysis by the InSight Crime think-tank. It said the gang oversees the arrival of cocaine shipments from Colombia and uses a fleet of speedboats to send it on to Central America and Mexico, from where it is shipped to consumer markets in North America and Europe. "With or without Fito, Ecuador will continue to be a top cocaine transit nation," said the NGO. Macias had also escaped prison in 2013, but managed to elude authorities for only three months at the time. On Sunday, he became the first Ecuadoran extradited by his country since the measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which Noboa sought the approval of measures to boost his war on criminal gangs.
Sinar Daily
4 days ago
- Sinar Daily
Ecuador's biggest drug lord 'Fito' extradited to US
The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on Sunday night, according to the Flightradar tracking site. 21 Jul 2025 01:19pm Handout picture released by the Ecuadorean Prison Authority SNAI shows drug trafficker Adolfo Macias being escorted out of La Roca prison to be extradited to US in Guayaquil on July 20, 2025. The Ecuadoran government on July 20, 2025, extradited Macias, alias "Fito," to the US, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum security penitentiary, the country's prison authority said. (Photo by Handout / SNAI / AFP) QUITO - The Ecuadoran government on Sunday extradited notorious drug trafficker Adolfo Macias, alias "Fito," to the United States, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum security penitentiary, the country's prison authority said. The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on Sunday night, according to the Flightradar tracking site. The US Attorney's Office filed charges in April against Macias, the head of the "Los Choneros" gang, on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling. A letter filed by the US Department of Justice on Sunday said Macias was due to appear in a federal court on Monday "for an arraignment on the Superseding Indictment in this case." The drug lord on Sunday was removed from custody at a maximum security prison in Ecuador's southwest "for the purposes that correspond to the extradition process," Ecuador's prison authority SNAI said in a statement to reporters. Macias, a former taxi driver turned crime boss, agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the United States to face the charges. He is the first Ecuadoran extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought the approval of moves to boost his war on criminal gangs. 'Sooner the better' 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 with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control. Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of "internal armed conflict" and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to "neutralize" the gangs. The move has been criticized by human rights organizations. Macias's Los Choneros has ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Colombia's Gulf Clan -- the world's largest cocaine exporter -- and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory. The crime boss' escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a massive military and police recapture operation, including government "wanted" posters offering $1 million for information leading to his arrest. On June 25, Macias was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the center of operations for Los Choneros. Noboa declared he would be extradited, "the sooner the better." "We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law," Noboa told CNN at the time. More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador's ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine. - AFP
