Video shows Ecuador's most wanted man and gang leader ‘Fito' captured
Ecuador's most wanted man and leader of the Los Choneros gang, Jose Adolfo Macias, known as 'Fito,' was captured on Wednesday, according to the country's President Daniel Noboa. He escaped from a prison in Guayaquil in January 2024, which unleashed a wave of violence in the country.
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UPI
3 hours ago
- UPI
Ecuador's most wanted drug lord recaptured after 18 months on the run
Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar 'Fito' (C) arrives back in Guayaquil, Ecuador, under heavy armed guard on Wednesday after being recaptured 120 miles away in the port city of Manta. Photo by Maurico Torres/EPA June 26 (UPI) -- Ecuadorian authorities arrested the leader of the notorious Los Choneros drug gang after 18 months on the run following a prison break that unleashed a wave of violence across the Central American country, forcing President Daniel Noboa to declare a 60-day state of emergency. In a post on X late Wednesday, Noboa said that the recapture of Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as "Fito," was vindication of controversial emergency powers granted to him by lawmakers last week and that he now wanted to hand Fito him over to the United States where he is wanted on cocaine trafficking charges. "To those who opposed and doubted the need for the Solidarity and Intelligence laws: thanks to those laws, Fito was captured today and is in the hands of the Security Block. More will fall, we will reclaim the country. No truce. We have done our part to proceed with Fito's extradition to the United States, we are awaiting their response," said Noboa. Fito, who is suspected of ordering the killing of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio ahead of elections in 2023, was pulled from a bunker hidden beneath an upscale villa in the coastal city of Manta following a stakeout by security forces. He was flown back to Guayaquil and is being held in the city's La Roca maximum-security prison where he had been due to be transferred prior to escaping in January 2024. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Fito in February 2024, a month after Ecuador was rocked by prison riots and gang killings, kidnappings and bombings after Noboa imposed a state of emergency after Fito escaped from Guayaquil Regional Prison, where he was serving a 34-year sentence for a string of crimes, including murder. Officials said they were extremely concerned about the situation in the country, citing an armed attack on a local TV station while it was live on air, the subsequent assassination of the prosecutor assigned to investigate the incident, and rampant corruption. Violence had been further fueled, they said, by Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion using rival Ecuadorian drug trafficking gangs as proxies as they fought it out for domination of trafficking routes in the country. Earlier, the U.S. State Department offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of "remaining unknown coconspirators" responsible for Villavicencio's murder in a shooting at a campaign event in Quito on Aug. 9, 2023, that injured nine other people. An additional reward of up to $1 million was offered for information leading to the identification and location of leaders of the transnational gang responsible for Villavicencio's murder after a Colombian, believed to be the assassin, was detained after being shot by police but died of his injuries. In March 2024, Brigitte García, 27, Ecuador's youngest mayor, was found shot dead inside a vehicle in a remote spot alongside an aide. Elected mayor of the small coastal city of San Vicente in 2023, Garcia's killing sparked a public outcry. The U.S. National Security Council, Homeland Security, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, FBI and Defense Department have all been involved in U.S. efforts to quell an explosion in violence by armed gangs that has seen Ecuador go from being a tranquil tourist hotspot to a country with one of the highest murder rates in Latin America. The security council designated funding to combat the gangs with assistance to build an Ecuadorian Coast Guard Academy, a canine veterinary clinic, an office for the corruption prosecution unit and eight mobile border units to support an elite border task force. Homeland Security sent a 175-strong team to train the Ecuadorian border officers, trained up 35 members of the close-protection details responsible for the security of the president and vice-president and provided support for targeting organized crime networks with digital forensics services. The FBI ramped up its presence in the country in response to the surging violence, while the Pentagon committed a C-130H military transport, on top of 20,000 bulletproof vests and more than $1 million of emergency response announced by the then-Biden administration in January 2024.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ecuador's most wanted drug lord captured in 'underground bunker'
Police in Ecuador have recaptured the country's most wanted fugitive, drug lord Adolfo Macías Villamar. Macías, also known by the alias "Fito", is the leader of Los Choneros, a powerful criminal gang which is blamed for Ecuador's transformation from a tourist haven to a country with one of the highest murder rates in the region. He is also suspected of having ordered the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023. Police tracked him down to what they described as an underground bunker below a luxury home in the city of Manta. A police spokesman said no shots were fired in the 10-hour joint operation by police and the military. A large number of officers first monitored and surrounded the three-storey home in the Monterrey neighbourhood of Manta, on the Ecuadorian coast. When they stormed the building, they found a sliding trap door, disguised to look like part of the stone floor, from which metal stairs led to Fito's underground hideout. The "bunker" was fitted out with air conditioning, a bed, a fan and a fridge. The house itself boasted a gym with a punching bag and a games room where he could play pool and table football. Fito reportedly put up no resistance and was transferred by air to the port city of Guayaquil, where several of Ecuador's largest prisons are located. Footage of his arrival in Guayaquil shows him wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops while being led by armed security officers to a parked SUV before being transfered to the La Roca maximum-security prison. Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa praised the security forces for capturing Fito and said that he would be extradited to the US, where he has been charged with cocaine smuggling. Fito escaped from La Regional prison in Guayaquil in January 2024 with the help of at least two guards, prompting global media attention. It triggered a wave of deadly prison riots, in which guards were taken hostage and which prompted Noboa to declare a state of emergency. But Fito was already notorious prior to his escape. During his time in prison - while serving a 34-year sentence for murder and drug trafficking - he rose to the top of the Los Choneros gang after its previous leader was killed. From behind bars, he co-ordinated the gang's activities, which include drug trafficking and extortion. He is also suspected of having ordered the murder of politician Fernando Villavicencio, who was gunned down at a campaign rally just days before the 2023 election. Under Fito's leadership, Los Choneros forged links with Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel, an alliance which experts say has led to the gruesome tactics commonly used by Mexican cartels - such as decapitations and mutilations - spreading to Ecuador. Shortly before his prison escape, he also appeared in a narcocorrido - a slick music video in which his daughter glorifies her father's criminal exploits. The video, which was partly recorded inside the prison, shows him caressing a fighting cockerel and freely chatting to fellow inmates. The gang leader's escape in 2024 was a blow to Noboa's government. The Ecuadorian leader had assumed office in November 2023 after being elected on a promise to combat the growing power of the gangs. On Wednesday, Noboa said that the drug lord's capture was proof his approach - which includes bringing in laws giving him sweeping powers to declare an "armed internal conflict", and which allows police to conduct searches without a warrant - was working. "More [drug lords] will fall, we will regain [control of] the country," he posted on X. Curfew in Ecuador after jailed gang boss vanishes Argentina expels family of Ecuador gang leader Ecuador inmates seize guards after drug lord's escape Ecuador politician murder: Prison gangs in terror reign
New York Times
6 hours ago
- New York Times
Ecuador Captures Gang Leader Whose Prison Escape Set Off Violence
Ecuadorean security officials on Wednesday captured the gang leader known as 'Fito' whose escape in 2024 set off violence across the country. President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador announced the capture of the gang leader, José Adolfo Macías, on social media. 'We have done our part to proceed with Fito's extradition to the United States. We are awaiting their response,' Mr. Noboa wrote in Spanish. Mr. Macías is wanted by the United States on accusations of trafficking drugs and smuggling weapons. Mr. Macías, 45, leads the powerful Los Choneros gang, one of Ecuador's most violent criminal organizations. The U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York indicted him earlier this year on seven counts, including cocaine distribution. He escaped prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, in January 2024, when officers who had arrived to transfer Mr. Macías to a maximum-security prison discovered he was missing from his cell. The government declared a 60-day state of emergency while they searched for him, triggering riots in several prisons, gang attacks, kidnappings and bombings across the country. The U.S. Treasury Department placed sanctions on Mr. Macías and on Los Choneros in February of that year. On Wednesday, authorities found him hiding in an underground bunker in Manta, a city about 120 miles from Guayaquil, Interior Minister John Reimberg told reporters. The military released video footage of the operation, which involved the Ecuadorean police and armed forces, showing Mr. Macías shirtless and handcuffed as officers push him down to a tile floor. In the video, officers loaded Mr. Macías into an armored vehicle and put him on an Air Force plane to Guayaquil. In another video, taken by The Associated Press, he is being led off the plane wearing a dark blue shirt, gray shorts and flip-flops. He was being taken to prison, Mr. Reimberg said. Mr. Macías's escape came two months after Mr. Noboa's election. During his campaign for president, Mr. Noboa vowed to crack down on the gangs that had disrupted Ecuador's security. 'More will fall, we will reclaim the country. No truce,' Mr. Noboa wrote on social media on Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador's capital, congratulated officials for capturing Mr. Macías in a social media post. Mark A. Walsh contributed translation.
