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José Adolfo Macías VillamarA fugitive drug trafficker known as Fito and wanted by the authorities of the Ecuador and the United States, was taken over more than a year after his prison flight in the Andean nation, the Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa announced on Wednesday.
Macías, who directed a gang called “Los Choneros” in Ecuador, was captured in the Ecuadorian city of Manta, said his hometown, said officials of the equator. In April, he was charged in New York for importing thousands of pounds of cocaine in the United States.
“More end, we will recover the country. No truce,” Noboa said In a post X announcing the arrest of Macías. “We have done our part to continue the extradition of Fito in the United States, we are waiting for their response.”
Interpol had issued an arrest warrant against the Macias after his Mysterous prison escape at the beginning of 2024 From the regional prison of Guayaquil, where he served a 34 -year sentence for drug trafficking. The Ecuadorian authorities have not yet explained how he escaped one of the notoriously violent prisons in the country. They only learned his escape when a military quota arrived to transfer him to another maximum security prison but did not find him in his cell.
The Ecuadorian army has confirmed Macias’s reuptake in what seemed to be the basement of a house. A video provided by the army showed the moment of arrest, with a uniform officer aimed at a firearm at the head of the drug trafficker, who gave his full name. The police had found it hidden in a small hole under what seemed to be a kitchen counter.
The announcement of Wednesday of his arrest comes from the same week as Federico Gómez, alias “Fede”, the chief of another gang called Las Aguilas, was confirmed that he had escaped from an Ecuadorian prison.
Last year, American lawyer John Durham said in a press release that Macias had led Los Choneros and his “network of assassins and drug and weapons traffickers” since at least 2020.
With a vast criminal record comprising accusations of murder and organized crime, Macías cultivated a cult status among the other members of the gangs and the public in his country of origin.
While behind bars in 2023, he published a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian people” when he was flanked by armed men. He also launched holidays in prison, where he had access to everything, from alcohol to roosters for combat matches. He also directed Los Choneros of his prison unit, according to the authorities.
The escape of Macías “sparked generalized riots, bombings, kidnappings, the assassination of a leading prosecutor and an armed attack on a television network during a live program,” said the United States Embassy and the Ecuador Consulate last year.
The Ecuadorian government and the drug mafias have also declared war on the other, and Noboa has given the order to “neutralize” criminal gangs after Armed men stormed and opened fire In the television studio and the bandits have threatened random executions of civilians and security forces.
THE Act of indictment at the seven years old An elevated Brooklyn accuses Macías and an unidentified co-defender with the international distribution of cocaine, the conspiracy and the counting of arms, including the smuggling of firearms in the United States.
Los Choneros has used people to buy firearms, components and ammunition in the United States and pass them into equate, according to the indictment. Cocaine would flow in the United States with the help of Mexican cartels.
“Los Choneros has exploited a large network responsible for the shipment and distribution of multiple quantities of cocaine from South America to Central America and Mexico in the United States and elsewhere,” said the accusation act.
Last year, the United States ranked Los Choneros as one of the most violent gangs and confirmed its link with Mexican drug cartels which threaten the equator and the surrounding region.
The authorities of the Ecuador classified the gang as a terrorist organization. Earlier this month, the Ecuadorian government announced that the reward for the capture of Macías would be increased for $ 1 million.
