Drug lord 'Fito,' criminal mastermind in Ecuador

Sharjah 24

4 days ago

The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil.
President Daniel Noboa's government then released "WANTED" posters with images of his face and offered $1 million for information leading to his capture.
In a country plagued by crime, members of Macias Villamar's gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car bombs, holding prison guards hostage and taking over a television station during a live broadcast by force.
After months of pursuit, Fito was captured in the coastal city of Manta in a massive military and police operation in which no shots were fired.
According to local media, he was found hiding in a bunker accessible by lifting a trap door in the floor of a luxury home.
After his recapture, President Noboa predicted that more crime bosses would fall.
"We will take back the country. Without respite," he declared.
Noboa also said his government was awaiting a response from US authorities regarding Fito's extradition.
American prosecutors have charged him, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling.
They allege his gang worked with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel to control key drug trafficking routes between South America and the United States.
Prison boss
Before his escape in January 2024, Fito was the boss of his Guayaquil prison, which was adorned with images glorifying him, weapons, dollars and lions.
Videos show celebrations he held inside the prison, including with fireworks and a mariachi band. In one clip, he appears waving, laughing and petting a fighting rooster.
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.
He earned his law degree in prison, where he was serving a 34-year sentence for weapons possession, drug trafficking, organized crime and murder.
Los Choneros, which first engaged in common crimes, later established links with Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers.
The gang currently has ties to the Sinaloa cartel, the Gulf Clan -- the world's largest cocaine exporter -- and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.
The defense ministry has estimated that the gang is present in 10 of Ecuador's 24 provinces.
Virtual army
On social media, Los Choneros threatens journalists and issues warnings to other gangs in videos set to music.
"Active, Choneros, we are lions here. With Uncle Fito, as expected, controlling the neighborhood, we are bosses here," they say in one of their songs.
When Fito escaped from prison, he was identified as the mastermind behind the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio in August 2023.
Then-president Guillermo Lasso ordered his transfer to a maximum-security prison in a law enforcement operation that sparked protests by prisoners.
The investigation later took a turn and focused on Los Lobos, a rival gang, as being behind Villavicencio's murder.
Fito had also escaped prison in 2013, but he eluded authorities for only three months.