Notorious drug lord, wanted by U.S., captured underground in Ecuador
QUITO, Ecuador — Authorities in Ecuador have detained the country's most notorious drug trafficker, José Adolfo 'Fito' Macías Villamar, more than a year after he escaped from the maximum-security prison he once controlled.
Specialized Ecuadorian police and military intelligence officers, with support from the United States, tracked him Wednesday evening to a basement where he had been hiding in the coastal Ecuadorian city of Manta, according to a senior police official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation.
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