Ecuador Recaptures Most Wanted Gang Leader More Than 1 Year After He Escapes Prison

José Adolfo Macías escaped from a prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where he was serving a 34-year sentence.
Ecuador Recaptures Most Wanted Gang Leader More Than 1 Year After He Escapes Prison
A wanted poster shows José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, the alleged leader of Los Choneros gang. Ecuador's Ministry of Interior via AP
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Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive and the alleged leader of the Los Choneros criminal group was recaptured after escaping from prison more than a year ago, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa said on June 25.

José Adolfo Macías, also known as “Fito,” escaped in January 2024 from a prison in Guayaquil, where he was serving a 34-year sentence for crimes including drug trafficking and murder.

Ecuadorian authorities have not explained how he escaped shortly before his planned move to a maximum-security facility in the country. The Ecuadorian government declared a 60-day state of emergency following the escape as violence, prison riots, and gang attacks soared across the country.
“My recognition goes to our police and military personnel who took part in this operation,” Noboa wrote on the social media platform X. “More will fall, we will take back the country. No truce.”

Noboa added that Ecuador had requested Macías be extradited to the United States, where he is set to face international drug and gun charges in a federal court in New York.

Macías allegedly led “Los Choneros”—one of Ecuador’s most violent and powerful drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations—since at least 2020, according to an April 2 statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

An 11-page indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn in April charges Macías with international cocaine distribution conspiracy; international cocaine distribution; use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking; smuggling firearms from the United States; and straw purchasing of firearms conspiracy.

The indictment alleges that the gang, in partnership with the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador and operated a large-scale network responsible for the shipment and distribution of “multi-ton quantities” of cocaine from South America through Central America and Mexico to the United States and elsewhere, according to the statement.

The indictment alleges that the vast majority of drugs trafficked by the organization were imported into the United States, the attorney’s office said.

As the principal leader of the criminal group, Macías allegedly ordered other members to carry out serious acts of violence on the organization’s behalf, including violent acts towards law enforcement, Ecuadorian politicians, attorneys, prosecutors, and civilians, according to the indictment.

The group also allegedly obtained firearms and weapons by illegally trafficking and exporting them from the United States and then illegally smuggling them to Ecuador.

The criminal organization also relied on hitmen or “sicarios” as well as corruption and bribery to further their drug trafficking operation, the indictment alleges. The hitmen regularly used military-grade weapons to perpetrate violence, including murder, torture, and kidnapping, according to the indictment.

Authorities in Ecuador have classified the gang as a terrorist organization.

In March, Ecuador’s Ministry of the Interior offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Macías.
In February, Macías and Los Choneros were sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) following what it said was a “steep rise in violence in Ecuador attributed to the actions of Los Choneros and other drug trafficking gangs.”