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CBS News
a day ago
- CBS News
Notorious drug lord dubbed "Fito" extradited to U.S. from Ecuador, arrives in New York
Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang who relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business. It marks the first time an Ecuadorian has been extradited to the U.S. directly from Ecuador. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is "Fito," escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and was recaptured late June. In April, a U.S. Attorney indicted him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States. Macías "was removed from the La Roca Detention Center under the custody of the National Police and Armed Forces for the appropriate proceedings in the context of an extradition process," Ecuador's government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists. Details of the handover were not specified. A photograph released by SNAI showed Macías wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location. The Ecuadorian will appear Monday before Brooklyn's federal court "where he will plead not guilty," Macías' lawyer Alexei Schacht told The Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison yet to be determined, Schacht added. The seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn charges Macías and an unidentified co-defendant with international cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, including smuggling firearms from the United States. The extradition decision came after the United States sent a document to Ecuador offering guarantees for the respect of the rights of the 45-year-old criminal leader. Since 2020, Macías has led "Los Choneros," a criminal organization that emerged in the 1990s. The gang employed people to buy firearms and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador, according to April's indictment. Cocaine would flow into the United States with the help of Mexican cartels. Together, the groups controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador, violently targeting law enforcement, politicians, lawyers and civilians who stood in the way. Last year, the U.S. classified Los Choneros as one of the most violent gangs and affirmed its connection to powerful Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the surrounding region. Authorities in Ecuador have classified the gang as a terrorist organization. While Macias was on the run, the Ecuadorian government announced the reward for his capture would be increased to $1 million. Macías escaped from a Guayaquil prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime, and murder. He was recaptured a year and a half later on the country's central coast. Macías has cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public in his home country. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to "the Ecuadorian people" while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches. Macías is the first Ecuadorian to be extradited to the U.S. from Ecuador, prison authorities said. Two other Ecuadorian drug traffickers have previously been handed over to the United States but from Colombia, where they were arrested. Earlier this year, a leader of one of Ecuador's biggest crime syndicates, Los Lobos, was arrested at his home in the coastal city of Portoviejo. Carlos D, widely known by his alias "El Chino," was the second-in-command of Los Lobos and "considered a high-value target," the armed forces said in a statement. The U.S. last year declared Los Lobos to be the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador.
NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
Ecuador extradites leader of violent Ecuadorian drug gang to the United States
QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang who relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is 'Fito,' escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and was recaptured late June. In April, a U.S. Attorney indicted him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States. Macías 'was removed from the La Roca Detention Center under the custody of the National Police and Armed Forces for the appropriate proceedings in the context of an extradition process,' Ecuador's government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists. Details of the handover were not specified. A photograph released by SNAI showed Macías wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location. The Ecuadorian will appear Monday before Brooklyn's federal court 'where he will plead not guilty,' Macías' lawyer Alexei Schacht told The Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison yet to be determined, Schacht added. The extradition decision came after the United States sent a document to Ecuador offering guarantees for the respect of the rights of the 45-year-old criminal leader. Since 2020, Macías has led 'Los Choneros,' a criminal organization that emerged in the 1990s. The gang employed people to buy firearms and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador, according to April's indictment. Cocaine would flow into the United States with the help of Mexican cartels. Together, the groups controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador, violently targeting law enforcement, politicians, lawyers and civilians who stood in the way. Macías escaped from a Guayaquil prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime, and murder. He was recaptured a year and a half later on the country's central coast. Macías has cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public in his home country. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to 'the Ecuadorian people' while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches. Macías is the first Ecuadorian to be extradited to the U.S. from Ecuador, prison authorities said. Two other Ecuadorian drug traffickers have previously been handed over to the United States but from Colombia, where they were arrested.
a day ago
Ecuador extradites leader of violent Ecuadorian drug gang to the United States
QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang who relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is 'Fito,' escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and was recaptured late June. In April, a U.S. Attorney indicted him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States. Macías 'was removed from the La Roca Detention Center under the custody of the National Police and Armed Forces for the appropriate proceedings in the context of an extradition process,' Ecuador's government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists. Details of the handover were not specified. A photograph released by SNAI showed Macías wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location. The Ecuadorian will appear Monday before Brooklyn's federal court "where he will plead not guilty,' Macías' lawyer Alexei Schacht told The Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison yet to be determined, Schacht added. The extradition decision came after the United States sent a document to Ecuador offering guarantees for the respect of the rights of the 45-year-old criminal leader. Since 2020, Macías has led 'Los Choneros,' a criminal organization that emerged in the 1990s. The gang employed people to buy firearms and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador, according to April's indictment. Cocaine would flow into the United States with the help of Mexican cartels. Together, the groups controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador, violently targeting law enforcement, politicians, lawyers and civilians who stood in the way. Macías escaped from a Guayaquil prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime, and murder. He was recaptured a year and a half later on the country's central coast. Macías has cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public in his home country. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to 'the Ecuadorian people' while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches. Macías is the first Ecuadorian to be extradited to the U.S. from Ecuador, prison authorities said. Two other Ecuadorian drug traffickers have previously been handed over to the United States but from Colombia, where they were arrested.
Sinar Daily
a day 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
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Ecuador extradites drug gang leader to the United States
QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent gang who relied on hit men, bribes and military weapons to do business. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is 'Fito,' escaped from an Ecuadoran prison in January 2024 and was recaptured late last month. In April, a U.S. attorney indicted him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States. Macías 'was removed from the La Roca Detention Center under the custody of the National Police and Armed Forces for the appropriate proceedings in the context of an extradition process,' Ecuador's government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists. Details of the handover were not specified. A photograph released by SNAI showed Macías wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location. The Ecuadoran will appear Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, 'where he will plead not guilty,' Macías' lawyer Alexei Schacht told the Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison to be determined, Schacht added. The extradition decision came after the United States sent a document to Ecuador offering guarantees for the respect of the rights of the 45-year-old criminal leader. Since 2020, Macías has led Los Choneros, a criminal organization that emerged in the 1990s. The gang employed people to buy firearms and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador, according to April's indictment. Cocaine would flow into the U.S. with the help of Mexican cartels. Together, the groups controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador, violently targeting law enforcement, politicians, lawyers and civilians who stood in the way. Macías escaped from a Guayaquil prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder. He was recaptured a year and a half later on the country's central coast. Macías has cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public in his home country. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to 'the Ecuadorian people' while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to luxuries including liquor and roosters for cockfighting matches. Macías is the first Ecuadoran to be extradited to the U.S. from Ecuador, prison authorities said. Two other Ecuadoran drug traffickers have previously been handed over to the United States from Colombia, where they were arrested. Molina writes for the Associated Press.
