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Fugitive gang leader found a YEAR after prison break as his dramatic secret lair is revealed
The leader of one of the most powerful gangs in Ecuador has finally been recaptured more than a year after he escaped from a jail.
The military raided a mansion located in the Ecuadorian port city of Manta on Wednesday and found Jose Adolfo 'Fito' Macías hiding in a bunker that was said to have been built beneath the kitchen.
A video released by the Ecuadorian Army showed a shirtless Macías pinned down to the ground while armed soldiers repeatedly asked him to identify himself.
The lavish, three-floor residence belonged to the 45-year-old 'Los Choneros' gang leader's girlfriend.
It featured marbled floors in most of the rooms with LED lighting on the walls along a flight of stairs.
The ground level featured a living room with billiards table. One of the floors was equipped with a swimming pool, while another area was set up as a gym.
The National Police and the military spent more than 10 hours gathering intelligence on the mansion, which stood out among the humble neighborhood of La Tejedora.
'The operation was carried out with precision and without casualties, once again demonstrating the commitment and operational capacity of the Armed Forces and the entire Security Bloc to ensure the well-being of Ecuadorian families,' the Ecuadorian Army said in a statement.
Macías escaped from the Guayaquil Regional Prison in January 2024, where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking.
Ecuador President Daniel Noboa vowed to hand over Macías to the US government.
'More will fall, we will recover the country,' he said in a post on X.
'We have done our part to proceed with Fito's extradition to the United States; we await your response.'
A New York federal court indicted the notorious gang leader and another co-defendant on seven counts, including cocaine distribution and firearm smuggling from the US.
Prosecutors have accused Macías' criminal organization of being linked to Mexican cartels and running an enterprise that shipped and distributed tons of cocaine from South America via Central American and Mexico before reaching the United States and beyond.
Ecuadorian authorities were offering a $1 million reward for Macías' arrest.
Macías was just 20 years old when he was first arrested in on a robbery charge and was then apprehended on drug trafficking and criminal organization charges in 2011 and sentenced to almost three and a half decades.
He became a lawyer while in jail while maintaining the command of a criminal organization that graduated from pulling robberies in the middle of the sea to being linked to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and Colombia's Gulf Clan.
Macías assumed leadership of Los Choneros alongside Roldán Paredes in 2018 following the extradition of Edison Prado, also known at the 'Pablo Escobar of Ecuador,' to the United States.
In an October 2021 jailhouse interview with Ecuadorian digital news outlet La Posta, Macías revealed how Los Choneros controlled five of 12 pavilions at the Guayaquil Regional Prison.
Los Choneros and other rival and affiliated gangs operated at will by bribing prison guards and police officers with $80 to $100 a day.
He told the outlet that by having the guards and cops on their side, the gangs could smuggle cellphones, drugs, grenades, guns and rifles that permitted each pavilion to operate at free will and in turn generate up $200,000 a month or $280 million a year that would be split between both law enforcement and the criminal network leaders.
According to the report, inmates on average paid guards $300 to smuggle phones and $30 a week for access to internet service.
The gangs also ran a loan-shark program in each pavilion, lending out anywhere between $5,000 to $50,000 and drawing 30 percent to 100 percent in fees, with guards and the police receiving 10 percent in kickback payments.
They also operated food stands, which basically replaced the jail's commissary.
The gangs also made extra money by renting out cells and mattresses to prisoners.
