Ecuador gang leader 'Fito' taken from prison ahead of extradition
Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, was shown in a photo being taken in handcuffs, wearing a helmet and a vest, by police.
He escaped last year from an Ecuadorean prison, where he was serving a 34-year sentence for a slew of crimes. He was recaptured last month.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Peterborough shop worker threatened with weapons by shoplifters
A convenience store worker has described being threatened with weapons when challenging shoplifters as incidents increase across a county. "I've been threatened with knives, with hockey sticks, every day you're seeing something get worse," said Kieran Essex, 27, who works in a shop in Peterborough. Figures from Cambridgeshire Police show reports of shoplifting have more than doubled over the past five years and Mr Essex said it was a "pandemic". Darryl Preston, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said work was taking place to tackle the issue. Mr Essex has been working in retail for nine years and said there were now "countless" amounts of said he has experienced "physical contact" with offenders on numerous occasions. "I have had to tackle people at the door, have pursued them outside and have even had people drive off with me inside their car window."He said recently the shop was targeted by shoplifters over four days in a ten-day period."Everyone is just trying to survive," Mr Essex said. In 2020 3,006 shoplifting incidents were recorded by Cambridgeshire Police across the county, this figure rose to 3,161 in 2021, 4,331 in 2022, 6,046 in 2023 and 7,352 in 2024. Vidyut Soni, the owner of Premier City News in Peterborough, has been looking for ways to tackle the problem."It's brazen, not blasé, but brazen. Everything that we sell we have to account for. "We need to find ways to actually make it better, or otherwise it can potentially ruin the whole business."Trade is not easy. Things are very tight in the economy and we don't make much money anyway." Pep Cipriano, the chief executive officer of Peterborough Positive, a business improvement area organisation, said the city was not alone in having rising rates of shoplifting."Shoplifting in Peterborough, like most towns and cities, is on the increase."We work really closely with the police to try and combat it and we've just got the recent announcement about new police officers coming to the city centre... which means on a daily basis we'll see more police on the street." Preston said: "There are ongoing operations taking place to deal with these issues in a concerted way – an example of which would be the 1,600 shoplifting charges brought by [Cambridgeshire Police's] south spree offending team since its creation in September 2023."I continue to fund problem-solving posts in each of our county's community safety partnerships who are working with the police and other partners to tackle shoplifting. "The sharing of local intelligence through schemes such as Shop Watch and the provision of Safer Business packs are both helping to support retailers in preventing, responding and recovering from incidents." Det Ch Insp Christian O'Brien, from Cambridgeshire Police, said: "We are doing everything we can, working with the business community and with the courts."We're... trying to put in place criminal orders to try and prevent the people from committing the offences. "We also work with partner agencies to help the people committing these crimes, because a lot is fuelled by different addictions." Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Rape, murder and secret burials: Temple worker's chilling confession shakes holy town
A temple town, a mystery whistleblower and a chilling confession: allegations of rape, murder and the secret burial of hundreds of women and girls over two decades have shocked the quiet holy town of Dharmasthala in southern India 's Karnataka. His face hidden behind a black hood, a whistleblower appeared before a local court earlier this month carrying skeletal remains that he claimed were taken from a mass burial site of sexual assault victims. The man claimed to be a former sanitation worker at the Dharmasthala temple and alleged he was forced into secretly disposing of hundreds of bodies, many of which showed signs of brutal violence and sexual assault. In a written complaint to the police chief of Dakshina Kannada district, the man, whose identity is being withheld for his safety, said he worked under duress for nearly 20 years before fleeing into hiding with his family in 2014. Driven by guilt, remorse and haunting nightmares, he had returned after more than a decade to expose the 'horrific crimes' he allegedly witnessed during his time working at the temple. According to his testimony and redacted complaint seen by The Independent, the alleged rape, torture and murder of girls and women and the disposal of their remains occurred between 1995 and 2014. The whistleblower demanded exhumation of the hundreds of corpses he claimed to have buried and an investigation so that justice could be ensured for the victims 'who were denied dignity even in death'. His lawyer, KV Dhananjay, told The Independent this was an 'unprecedented' case where the witness had come forward not only with his testimony but also evidence, demanding accountability. 'Here is the individual who says that it is not the fear of law but the fear of conscience and fear for morality that has brought him back,' Dhananjay said. 'In the last 100 years of court judgments, you don't find a parallel.' The emergence of a whistleblower has put the spotlight on hundreds of cases of women and girls who were found dead or reported missing in and around Dharmasthala over the years, many of which were ignored or not formally investigated by police. Nearly two weeks after the man filed his complaint, Karnataka's state government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the allegations. Nestled in the lush Western Ghats on the banks of the Nethravathi river, Dharmasthala is a major Hindu pilgrimage site. The medieval Shri Manjunatha Temple, dedicated to the deity Shiva and managed by a family, attracts millions of devotees to the small town every year. The whistleblower said he was from the Dalit community, the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system, and worked at the Shri Manjunatha Temple from 1995 to 2014. 'What began as regular employment later turned into work of covering up evidence of extremely horrific crimes,' he alleged. He fled in 2014 when 'the mental torture I was experiencing became unbearable'. The tipping point came after a young girl was sexually harassed, he alleged, prompting him to run away. He and his family went into hiding in a neighbouring state, he claimed, constantly changing residences for fear of their lives. In a chilling first-person account, the man said he found corpses wash up on the riverbank and assumed they were suicides or accidental drownings. But he soon noticed that most of them were women, and many were naked or semi-naked and showed signs of violence. It was in 1998 when he was first asked to "secretly dispose of the bodies", he alleged. When he refused, he was allegedly beaten and threatened. 'We will cut you into pieces. Your body will also be buried like the other corpses. We will sacrifice all your family members,' he alleged he was told. He claimed that many of the victims he ended up burying in secret were minor girls and women subjected to brutal sexual violence. They bore torn clothes, acid burns, and other injuries. In a particularly distressing case in 2010, the man said he was ordered to bury a girl he estimated was 12 to 15 years old. 'She was still wearing her school uniform shirt but other garments were missing. She had a school bag. Her body showed clear signs of sexual assault. There were strangulation marks on her neck,' the whistleblower said in his testimony. 'They instructed me to dig a pit and bury her along with her school bag. That scene remains disturbing to this day.' He also claimed that destitute men were murdered at Dharmasthala and similarly buried. The man alleges that he was a witness to these murders. According to the lawyer, the corpses were not buried in designated cemeteries but on open lands. 'These were not organised interments sanctioned by any authority but random burials, hidden and illegal,' he said. The whistleblower said he kept silent for years out of fear but the 'insurmountable sense of guilt' and recurring nightmares became too much to bear. 'I can no longer bear the burden of memories of the murders I witnessed, the continuous death threats to bury the corpses that I received and the pain of beatings – that if I did not bury those corpses, I would be buried alongside them,' he said. Dhananjay said the whistleblower's claims described a place where 'ordinary laws just don't work at all'. 'Now if it is true, one must assume that if somebody goes missing in such a place, the police are simply not going to record it,' he said. 'But just because we are unable to explain the past, the rocks should not blind us to the present.' The lawyer said the whistleblower took matters into his own hands because he expected little from police. 'Before coming to us, he went to one such burial site, exhumed the remains, and handed them over to the court,' he said. 'So now, the court has half the picture. The other half is for police to take him to the site where the recovery was made. They have not done that either. This man was not wanted. There were no pending investigations against him. No one was even looking for these bodies. By not acting, police are sending a message to the world – that this man may be telling the truth.' In a statement issued on Sunday 20 July, the temple authorities said they support a 'fair and transparent' investigation. 'Truth and belief form the foundation of a society's ethics and values. We sincerely hope and strongly urge the SIT to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and bring the true facts to light,' said K Parshwanath Jain, the official spokesperson for Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala. The whistleblower hasn't named any of the people he claims are responsible. He has sought protection from the court first, saying he will disclose more details once he and his family receive proper protection. Should anything happen to him before he is able to reveal the names, he has said, Dhananjay will open a sealed version of his full testimony. 'The truth about these tragedies must not die with me,' he said in his testimony. Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary told The Independent that the appointment of a Special Investigation Team was a 'significant step'. She referenced the anguish of families still waiting for answers. 'An old woman is still hoping to recover the remains of her daughter just so she can perform her last rites,' she said. 'That's why I wrote to the Karnataka government, and within four or five days they constituted the SIT.' If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call Childline free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adults on 0808 801 0331.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Kaylee Goncalves' sister describes what was like to face killer Bryan Kohberger: 'He is not human'
The sister of Kaylee Goncalves, who was murdered by Bryan Kohberger, has recounted the chilling moment she came eye-to-eye with her sibling's killer. Alivea Goncalves delivered a fiery and unwavering victim impact statement during Kohberger's sentencing in Boise, Idaho, on Wednesday, directly confronting the quadruple murderer and commanding him to 'sit up straight when I talk to you.' In an interview released Friday with NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin, Alivea recounted the moments leading up to her powerful courtroom statement, delivered in the harrowing presence of her sister's killer. She explained that no words could truly convey the reality of standing just feet from him - and the only way she could describe it was: 'He is not human.' 'When I tell you... there is not a human there,' she said during the interview. 'I'm not scared of this individual, I'm not intimidated by him - truly I'm not,' she added. 'But when I tell you there is... a primal sense of alarms. My body was telling me, "Run. Get out. This is a threat. This is not a human capacity."' Alivea has since been widely praised on social media for her powerful victim impact statement, where she spoke with unwavering confidence - directly confronting Kohberger and boldly calling out his failures. While speaking with Entin, she explained that although she initially felt confident in her words, once inside the courtroom, the overwhelming emotions made her fear that her statement might not fully do justice to the victims and their families. It wasn't until her father, Steve Goncalves - known for his outspoken presence since the murders - boldly turned the podium toward the defendant, despite warnings not to, that the atmosphere in the courtroom 'shifted.' As she sat in the pews, making last-minute tweaks and notes to her statement while listening to others deliver their emotional speeches, she steeled herself to deliver hers - determined to say everything she had been planning. 'My speech wasn't to Kaylee and Maddie - it was for them,' she said during the interview. 'If Kaylee and Maddie had been here today, it would have been something that I feel like would have rung true to them.' Her goal, she explained, was to hold eye contact with him for as long as she could - but as she stared into his eyes, every instinct in her told her she wasn't looking at a human being. 'The best description I can give you is, like, if I had come face-to-face with an alien,' she described. 'Because, back behind there, there's no human being - there's no humanity.' Alivea recalled seeing 'raw anger' and 'raw rage' in Kohberger's eyes as she confronted him, but despite the intensity, her focus remained steadfast - seeking justice for her sister Kaylee and Madison. 'I could feel that specific stare the entire time. It was unrelenting,' she explained. 'All I remember feeling is, "This guy's pissed,"' she added. 'This is anger I've never experienced firsthand before.' 'I was ready to stand on business. There was nothing that was going to make me back down from that moment. All I felt was rage, almost from the very beginning.' During Alivea's blistering impact statement on Wednesday, she said: 'I wont stand her and give you what you want. I wont give you tears instead. I will call you what you are: sociopath, psychopath, murderer.' 'The truth is you're basic. You're a textbook case as insecurity disguised as control. You spent months preparing and still all it took was my sister and a sheath,' she added. 'You're as dumb as they come. Stupid, dumb, weak, dirty', Alivea continued, before she then hit him with the very same questions that Kohberger posed in a survey on Reddit as part of his criminology degree at DeSales University. She went on to blast Kohberger's past and all his failings, including unanswered questions in the Idaho murder case. Alivea told Kohberger he was a 'delusional, pathetic, hypochondriadic loser' who 'thought you were so much better than everyone else.' In a damning conclusion, she added: 'If you hadn't attacked them in your sleep like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f****** ass.' The courtroom erupted in clapping at the end of Alivea's statement. Koberger remained emotionless throughout. 'My whole purpose of that speech was taking back this power and giving it back to Kaylee and Maddie. Xana and Ethan as well. I wanted to give them the hero moment that I truly feel like they deserve,' she told Entin regarding her statement. 'For me, it was about taking back that control from him… getting under his skin, as best as I psychologically could with my limited understanding of what he is,' she added. 'It was all genuine. It was all incredibly true. Everything I did say was accurate to who he is and who they were.' In the closing moments of her interview, filmed less than 24 hours after the sentencing, Alivea told Entin with conviction, 'I truly believe Kaylee would've kicked his ass.' Kohberger, a 30-year-old PhD candidate, declined to speak at the hearing as he was told he would spend the remainder of his life behind bars without parole.
