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Jose Adolfo Macias, alias ‘Fito’, is because of be extradited to the US on drug trafficking and weapons smuggling prices.
The fugitive chief of Ecuador’s Los Choneros gang has been recaptured after almost 18 months on the run, in keeping with President Daniel Noboa.
Jose Adolfo Macias, also referred to as “Fito”, escaped from Guayaquil jail in January 2024, the place he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking and homicide.
Following his seize, Macias will now be extradited to the US, the place he was indicted by a federal court docket for prices associated to drug trafficking and firearms smuggling, Noboa stated on the X social media platform on Wednesday.
Noboa had beforehand supplied $1m for help in Macias’s seize and dispatched 1000’s of cops and members of the armed forces to search out him.
“My recognition to our police and navy who participated on this operation. Extra will fall, we’ll reclaim the nation. No truce,” Noboa stated on X.
Para los que se opusieron y dudaron de la necesidad de las leyes de Solidaridad e Inteligencia: gracias a esas leyes, Fito fue capturado hoy y está en manos del Bloque de Seguridad.
Mi reconocimiento a nuestros policías y militares que participaron en esta operación. Caerán más,…
— Daniel Noboa Azin (@DanielNoboaOk) June 25, 2025
Macias reportedly escaped forward of his switch to a maximum-security jail, however authorities have but to clarify how he succeeded.
The profitable escape “triggered widespread riots, bombings, kidnappings, the assassination of a outstanding prosecutor, and an armed assault on a TV community throughout a stay broadcast”, in keeping with america authorities, main Noboa to declare a 60-day state of emergency throughout Ecuador.
The Ecuadorian president additionally designated 22 gangs, together with Los Choneros, as “terrorist teams”.
The US Division of the Treasury individually sanctioned each Macias and Los Choneros in February 2024 for drug trafficking and instigating violence throughout Ecuador.
Ecuador was as soon as one in every of Latin America’s most peaceable nations, however its proximity to Peru and Colombia – the world’s prime producers of cocaine – has made it a main goal for prison teams exporting medicine overseas.
Competitors between rival native gangs, backed by international prison syndicates from Mexico to so far as Albania, has led to an explosion in violence throughout the nation.
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