The drug trafficker and criminal leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as “Fito”, the most sought after man in Ecuador, was recaptured on Wednesday (25), almost a year and a half after escaping from prison, where he returned to await extradition to the United States to be tried for seven accusations.
Shortly before 6 pm (local time, 8 pm GMT), Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced the new prison of the criminal, who had become one of the main targets of the war he declared against organized crime shortly after his escape, in the face of the escalation of violence that led the Ecuador to appear among the countries with the highest homicide rates in Latin America.
The reward offered by the Ecuadorian government was $ 1 million by Los Choneros leader, Ecuador’s largest and oldest criminal gang, dedicated to providing tons of cocaine – produced mainly in Colombia – to the Mexican syaloa cartel.
Despite being the target of an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol and after months of speculation that he could be hiding in Colombia or Argentina, “Fito” was arrested in his hometown, Manta, in Manabí’s coastal province, cradle and stronghold of Los Choneros.
“Underground Bunker”
The 45 -year -old was hidden in a “underground bunker” built under a house, where he was located after a ten -hour military operation, according to Ecuadorian Interior Minister John Reimberg.
It was necessary to use a excavator to access the bunker, where “Fito” was protected by four other men who were also detained.
Until Wednesday, all of his traces had disappeared since he escaped silently and stealthily from the Guayaquil Regional Penitentiary between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, without anyone reporting anything in a prison where until then he was the Lord and master, fully controlled by Los Choneros.
Shortly after his escape, a group of family and friends of the drug trafficker was arrested in a luxurious residential area on the outskirts of Cordoba, Argentina, and deported to Ecuador, where they were later released without accusations or processes.
However, in early June, several members of the intimate circle of “Fito” were arrested in Ecuador, including their brother and relatives of their already arrested girlfriend, with the aim of attacking Los Choneros leader’s finances, alleging to supply at least $ 24 million.
Rack to the rock
De Manta, “Fito” was transferred on an Ecuadorian Air Force plane (FAE) to Guayaquil, where he will be arrested again in La Roca, Ecuador’s maximum security arrest, where he will serve his 34 -year sentence for crimes such as drug trafficking, murder and organized crime imposed in 2011.
This is a family arrest for him, as he first escaped her in 2013 with 17 other Los Choneros members, although he was captured again three months later.
In 2023, he also spent a few weeks there until a bomb drone exploded the prison ceiling, which made him transferred to his stronghold, the Guayaquil Regional Penitentiary, where he fled months later.
“We did our part to proceed with the extradition of ‘Fito’ to the United States; we are waiting for the answer,” President Noboa said on social networks, who at the time of prison was in China as part of an official trip that also includes visits to Spain and Italy.
USA
Last April, the US government accused the drug trafficker formally on seven accusations, including conspiracy to distribute internationally cocaine, firearm use, and US gun smuggling.
According to the accusation, Los Choneros, in alliance with the Sinaloa cartel, controlled the main routes of cocaine trafficking through the Ecuador and operated a wide -scale network “responsible for the sending and distribution of tons of cocaine in South America, through Central America and Mexico, to the United States and other places.”
Los Choneros were also sanctioned by the US Treasury Department of Foreign Asset Control Office (OFAC) in order to block accounts and properties linked to the group or “Fitus” itself.
He has been the only leader of Los Choneros since May 2023, in a moment of conflict with other criminal gangs who have fired this criminal group from the hegemony of criminal activity in Ecuador, which from the 1990s to approximately 2020.
This confrontation led to a crisis of unprecedented violence in Ecuador, that President Noboa’s current government seeks to fight with successive emergency states, with the militarization of arrests, and declared the country in “internal armed conflict” and criminal gangs as terrorist groups.
