Latin America editor, BBC Information On-line
MAURICIO TORRES/EPAPolice in Ecuador have recaptured the nation’s most wished fugitive, drug lord Adolfo Macías Villamar.
Macías, additionally identified by the alias “Fito”, is the chief of Los Choneros, a robust prison gang which is blamed for Ecuador’s transformation from a vacationer haven to a rustic with one of many highest homicide charges within the area.
He’s additionally suspected of getting ordered the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.
Police tracked him all the way down to what they described as an underground bunker under a luxurious house within the metropolis of Manta.
A police spokesman mentioned no photographs have been fired within the 10-hour joint operation by police and the army.
A lot of officers first monitored and surrounded the three-storey house within the Monterrey neighbourhood of Manta, on the Ecuadorian coast.
After they stormed the constructing, they discovered a sliding lure door, disguised to appear like a part of the stone ground, from which steel stairs led to Fito’s underground hideout.
The “bunker” was fitted out with air con, a mattress, a fan and a fridge.
The home itself boasted a gymnasium with a punching bag and a video games room the place he might play pool and desk soccer.
Fito reportedly put up no resistance and was transferred by air to the port metropolis of Guayaquil, the place a number of of Ecuador’s largest prisons are situated.
Footage of his arrival in Guayaquil reveals him carrying shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops whereas being led by armed safety officers to a parked SUV earlier than being transfered to the La Roca maximum-security jail.
Mauricio Torres/EPAEcuadorean President Daniel Noboa praised the safety forces for capturing Fito and mentioned that he could be extradited to the US, the place he has been charged with cocaine smuggling.
Fito escaped from La Regional jail in Guayaquil in January 2024 with the assistance of a minimum of two guards, prompting international media consideration.
It triggered a wave of lethal jail riots, during which guards have been taken hostage and which prompted Noboa to declare a state of emergency.
However Fito was already infamous previous to his escape. Throughout his time in jail – whereas serving a 34-year sentence for homicide and drug trafficking – he rose to the highest of the Los Choneros gang after its earlier chief was killed.
From behind bars, he co-ordinated the gang’s actions, which embody drug trafficking and extortion.
He’s additionally suspected of getting ordered the homicide of politician Fernando Villavicencio, who was gunned down at a marketing campaign rally simply days earlier than the 2023 election.
Below Fito’s management, Los Choneros cast hyperlinks with Mexico’s highly effective Sinaloa cartel, an alliance which consultants say has led to the ugly techniques generally utilized by Mexican cartels – resembling decapitations and mutilations – spreading to Ecuador.
Shortly earlier than his jail escape, he additionally appeared in a narcocorrido – a slick music video during which his daughter glorifies her father’s prison exploits.
The video, which was partly recorded contained in the jail, reveals him caressing a combating cockerel and freely chatting to fellow inmates.
The gang chief’s escape in 2024 was a blow to Noboa’s authorities. The Ecuadorian chief had assumed workplace in November 2023 after being elected on a promise to fight the rising energy of the gangs.
On Wednesday, Noboa mentioned that the drug lord’s seize was proof his method – which incorporates bringing in legal guidelines giving him sweeping powers to declare an “armed inside battle”, and which permits police to conduct searches and not using a warrant – was working.
“Extra [drug lords] will fall, we are going to regain [control of] the nation,” he posted on X.