12 hours ago
Ecuador's most wanted drug lord found in tunnel under girlfriend's home
Ecuador's most notorious drug kingpin has been found hiding in his girlfriend's basement after a 17-month manhunt.
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, also known as Fito, was arrested by armed police and a squad of military intelligence officers on Wednesday evening.
Macías, 45, has been the leader of Los Choneros, one of Ecuador's most violent crime groups, since 2020 and has been indicted by US authorities for allegedly organising cocaine-trafficking routes up through Central America, Mexico and beyond, among other offences.
His escape from a maximum security prison in January last year triggered a state of emergency lasting 60 days. Thousands of soldiers were deployed as a wave of violence across the country's prison network left 20 people dead.
Ecuadorian police, with the support of US intelligence, tracked Macías to the coastal city of Manta where he was found in a tunnel beneath a home that reportedly belonged to his girlfriend, Verónica Narcisa Briones Zambrano.
Footage of the arrest shows armed police in balaclavas crawling into a tiled floor to reach the concealed basement underneath a kitchen counter.
Macías is then seen pinned to the ground with his hands tied behind his back and a handgun aimed towards his head before he was driven away in the backseat of an armoured vehicle.
John J. Durham, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, described Macias as a 'ruthless leader and prolific drug trafficker for a violent transnational criminal organisation'.
'By leading the Los Choneros' network of assassins and drug and weapon traffickers and importing potentially lethal quantities of cocaine into the United States, the defendant has caused great harm to his own country and the United States, which was the destination for the vast majority of Los Choneros' cocaine shipments,' he said.
The crime group relied on a network of sicarios, or hitmen equipped with military-grade weapons, including Kalashnikovs and grenades, to carry out murders, torture and kidnaps, according to an indictment unsealed by US authorities.
Their targets were not only gang rivals but Ecuadorian politicians, attorneys, prosecutors and civilians.
Daniel Noboa, Ecuador's president, confirmed the country has already requested his extradition to the US – and vowed that more notorious gang members 'will fall'.
In a post on social media, Mr Noboa said: 'Fito was captured today and is in the hands of the security block.
'My recognition to our police and military who participated in this operation. More will fall, we will reclaim the country. No truce.'
US prosecutors have charged Macías, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling.
Macias, at the time of his escape from Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, was considered a suspect in ordering the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, a presidential candidate who was shot in Quito in August 2023.
While serving his 34-year prison sentence for murder and organised crime offences, Macías, in September 2023 mocked the government in a high-production music video, partially filmed inside the prison.
The video, titled 'El Corrido del Leon' [The Lion's Ballad], shows Macias stroking a cockerel and gazing towards a painting of lion as two men in Tejana hats croon to accordion music about a 'man of good honour.'
