José Adolfo Macías Villamar, a fugitive drug trafficker often called Fito and wished by authorities in Ecuador and the USA, was recaptured greater than a 12 months after he escaped from jail within the Andean nation, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa introduced Wednesday.
Macías, who led a gang referred to as “Los Choneros” in Ecuador, was captured within the Ecuadorian metropolis of Manta, his hometown, officers in Ecuador mentioned. In April, He was indicted in New York Metropolis on costs he imported hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the USA.
“Extra will fall, we are going to reclaim the nation. No truce,” Noboa mentioned in an X publish saying Macías’ arrest. “We have now completed our half to proceed with Fito’s extradition to the USA, we’re awaiting their response.”
Interpol had issued an arrest warrant for Macias after his mysterious jail escape in early 2024 from the Guayaquil Regional Jail, the place he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking. Ecuadorian authorities have but to clarify how he escaped from one of many nation’s notoriously violent prisons. They solely realized of his escape when a navy contingent arrived to switch him to a different maximum-security jail however did not discover him in his cell.
The Ecuadorian military confirmed Macias’ recapture in what gave the impression to be the basement of a home. A video offered by the military confirmed the second of the arrest, with a uniformed officer aiming a gun on the head of the drug trafficker, who gave his full identify. The officers had discovered him hiding in a small gap beneath what gave the impression to be a kitchen counter.
Wednesday’s announcement of his arrest is available in the identical week that Federico Gómez, alias “Fede,” the chief of one other gang referred to as Las Aguilas, was confirmed to have escaped from an Ecuadorian jail.
Final 12 months, U.S. Lawyer John Durham mentioned in a information launch that Macias led Los Choneros and its “community of assassins and drug and weapon traffickers” since at the very least 2020.
With an intensive legal file together with costs of homicide and arranged crime, Macías has cultivated a cult standing amongst fellow gang members and the general public in his house nation.
Whereas behind bars in 2023, he launched a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian folks” whereas flanked by armed males. He additionally threw events in jail, the place he had entry to every thing from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches. He additionally had been operating Los Choneros from his jail cell, authorities allege.
Macías’ escape “triggered widespread riots, bombings, kidnappings, the assassination of a distinguished prosecutor, and an armed assault on a TV community throughout a stay broadcast,” the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Ecuador mentioned final 12 months.
The Ecuadorian authorities and drug mafias additionally declared battle on one another, and Noboa gave orders to “neutralize” legal gangs after gunmen stormed and opened hearth within the TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and safety forces.
The seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn costs Macías and an unidentified co-defendant with worldwide cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, together with smuggling firearms from the USA.
Los Choneros employed folks to purchase firearms, parts and ammunition in the USA and smuggle them into Ecuador, in accordance with the indictment. Cocaine would stream into the USA with the assistance of Mexican cartels.
“Los Choneros operated an unlimited community chargeable for the cargo and distribution of multi-ton portions of cocaine from South America via Central America and Mexico to the USA and elsewhere,” the indictment says.
Final 12 months, the U.S. labeled Los Choneros as some of the violent gangs and affirmed its connection to highly effective Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the encircling area.
Authorities in Ecuador have labeled the gang as a terrorist group. Earlier this month, the Ecuadorian authorities introduced the reward for the seize of Macías could be elevated to $1 million.
