Cnn
–
The Ecuadorian forces revealed how they captured the most sought after man in the country, the drug lord Adolfo “Fito” MacíasMore than a year after its cheeky prison escape Has prompted the president to declare an internal armed conflict to rage against the most violent gangs in the country.
After a man hunt for almost 18 months for the leader of the Criminal Group Los Choneros, the Ecuadorian security block made a breakthrough on June 25. They obtained information that alerted them to a luxurious house in the province of Manabí, the longtime fortress of the gang for drug operations.
The authorities immediately went to the region and launched a 10 -hour operation to try to find and capture the notorious gangster. To prevent the RAID from being thwarted, the army and the police closed access within a radius of 15 blocks so that no one can enter or leave the site.
Special teams from the armed forces have finally entered the property to collect more information and take control of the house.
It was a fully equipped villa, with a swimming pool, a gym, aircraft, a games room, marble walls and characteristics indicating that the property was still under construction.
In an area of the house, there was a perfectly camouflaged hole in the floor, containing a bunker with hidden access and air conditioning.
“The police and the armed forces on the scene began to search with instruments to see where the alias” Fito “was hidden,” said the Minister of the Interior of Ecuador John Reimberg.
A surveillance flight had identified an irregular scope behind the chamber, the authorities therefore asked for the use of excavations to locate the drug lord.
“They started to search. As soon as it happened, Fito panicked because if we continue, the roof of his bunker would collapse. At that moment, he opened the hatch, where the army was already located, and came out of the hole where he was hiding. This is how we held him,” said Reimberg.
Soldiers pinned Macías on the ground, pointed to weapons and ordered him to say his full name aloud.
“Adolfo Macías Villamar,” he said on the ground, hands behind his back, showed army images.
After the operation, the authorities arrested Macías, as well as four other men identified as part of its security details.
Macías was immediately transferred to Manta air base and then to Guayaquil air base. From there, he was taken to the Roca prison with maximum security, located in the complex of Guayaquil prison, behind Los Angeles regional prisonFrom where he escaped in January 2024.
A photo published later by the Ministry of the Interior showed the drug lord locked in his cell.
President Daniel Noboa The said equator works to extradite it in the United States – where he faces accusations of drugs and weapons – and awaits a response from US officials.
Macías is one of the most notorious gangsters in the equator and is the only founding member of Los Choneros who is still alive. In 2011, he was sentenced “for a series of crimes, including homicides and drug trafficking,” according to Think Tank Insight Crime, but left prison in February 2013 before being taken over months later.
Little is known about his life before the crime, but he acquired the reputation of being the gang money laundering expert when he was incarcerated for more than a decade.
Before fled the prison in 2024, the government planned to move Macías to a high security establishment. Noboa’s press secretary told a local channel that the news probably reached Macías and prompted him to escape.
