A judge in Spain ordered this Tuesday (18) the preventive detention of Wilmer Geovanny Chavarría Barre, known in the world of crime as “Pipo”. He is considered the leader of the Ecuadorian criminal gang Los Lobos.
His arrest was carried out during an operation in the city of Málaga, in southern Spain. Now, the criminal will await a decision on his extradition to Ecuador.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced on Sunday (16) the capture of the leader of Los Lobos, the most powerful criminal gang active in the country, who had become the most wanted man after the recapture, in May, of drug trafficker José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito”.
The criminal was arrested upon arriving in Malaga from Morocco for falsifying documents, and now the Interpol arrest warrant will be applied in relation to the events that took place in Ecuador.
While his extradition process to the Ecuadorian authorities is ongoing, judge María Tardón, of the National Court (the court that judges cases of terrorism and other serious crimes), decided to send him to preventive detention, according to legal sources who spoke to EFE Agency.
The arrest was part of Operation Renascimento, so called because Pipo had faked his own death to escape justice and allegedly commanded the criminal network from Spain and the United Arab Emirates, investigative sources told the Spanish agency.
He used a false identity (Danilo Ramón Fernández Calderón) and alternated his residence between the two countries. To avoid his recognition, he underwent at least seven surgeries to alter his appearance.
The Ecuadorian Interior Minister, John Reimberg, reported that Pipo commanded a vast network of drug trafficking and criminal activities in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Mexico and Colombia, with direct links to the Ecuador New Generation Cartel and alliances with Mexican, Colombian and European cartels.
For the Spanish investigators who carried out the arrest, this is a particularly important operation, since the Los Lobos group, temporarily allied with the Chone Assassins, is linked to several recent attacks in Guayaquil, in which car bombs and drones were used from prisons.
Sources indicate that the investigation revealed that the group financed attacks from Spain to intimidate the president of Ecuador and obstruct prison reforms, and that it is a group with international influence and the ability to escape international justice.
