(Adnkronos) – Ecuadorian authorities have announced the recapture of Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, the country’s most wanted drug trafficker and leader of the powerful criminal cartel ‘Los Choneros’. Villamar’s capture is a major victory for the Noboa government, which based its election campaign on the fight against the growing power of gangs. “Other (drug lords) will fall, we will regain (control) of the country,” the president declared on X.
According to police reports, Fito was located in a bunker, hidden under a luxurious house in the coastal city of Manta. The operation, coordinated by police and military forces, lasted about ten hours. The boss did not resist arrest and is now in the maximum security prison of La Roca, awaiting extradition to the United States for international cocaine trafficking, as announced by President Noboa.
Fito had escaped from La Regional prison in Guayaquil in January last year, with the complicity of at least two prison guards, triggering a wave of violence and riots in the country’s prisons, such as to push the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, to declare a state of national emergency.
During his detention, the drug trafficker had taken control of Los Choneros, managing a vast drug trafficking and extortion operation from inside the prison. He is also suspected of being the mastermind behind the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, assassinated during a rally in August 2023.
