Ecuador's biggest drug lord 'Fito' extradited to US
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.
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.
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