Ecuadoran security forces arrest the leader of the “Fito” gang

Win, whose real name is José Adolfo Macias, now in the hands of security forces, said head of state through X. “gang leader Los Choneros” escaped in January 2024 from the giant prison in southwest Guayaquil, a development that caused unprecedented violence in the Latin American country.

President Noboa's government had imposed a reward for the crime organiser, offering a $1 million reward for information that would lead to his arrest. The head of state, who has declared Ecuador in a state of “armed internal conflict” due to an increase in gang violence, said authorities had begun procedures to extradite it to the United States, where it is required for drug trafficking and other criminal acts by a federal court in New York.

In 2011, José Adolfo Macías was sentenced to 34 years in prison by Ecuadoran courts for a series of crimes, including murder and drug trafficking. Victory's escape was followed by the kidnapping of more than 200 police officers and prison security, explosions, murder of dozens of people, and the conquest of a television study by masked persons during a live broadcast.

A prosecutor investigating the last case was killed that same month. The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Los Conero gangs last year, explaining that they have been involved in drug trafficking since the 1990s and have played a key role in the “escalation of violence” in Ecuador since 2020, especially in prisons with a large number of inmates.