2024-01-08 21:41:22
The leader of Ecuador’s main criminal gang probably escaped “hours before” a control operation on Sunday in the prison where he was serving his sentence, the government’s Secretary of Communication, Roberto Izurieta, indicated this Monday. “The most likely thing is that there were infiltrations and it was a matter of hours before (the operation),” said the official when asked by the Teleamazonas channel regarding “when” Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito,” escaped.
The authorities have not recognized the evasion of the 44-year-old criminal.
LOOK: Who is alias ‘Fito’, the leader of Los Choneros who had threatened the murdered Fernando Villavicencio
On Sunday, the commander of the Police, General César Zapata, admitted that “it was possible to notice the non-presence of one of the inmates” with the entry of the public force into a penitentiary in the port of Guayaquil (southwest) where he should have been. “Fito.”
The prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the “alleged evasion” of the head of the Los Choneros narcocriminal gang, the most feared in Ecuador that bloody disputes drug trafficking routes with other criminal groups.
Members of the Armed Forces participate in a joint security operation with the National Police at the Regional 8 prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Marcos PIN/AFP).
“Fito”, who was imprisoned in the Guayaquil Regional Prison, had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
Independent investigations point to the key role of Los Choneros in cocaine trafficking and the export of the drug from Pacific ports.
Due to his command over thousands of men, “Fito” is considered one of the most dangerous criminals in Ecuador, plagued by drug violence in the presence of foreign cartels.
The authorities do not rule out that he may be hidden in the Guayaquil prison complex.
The government’s Secretary of Communication indicated that “the force of the State is deployed to find this extremely dangerous individual.”
Izurieta lamented that “the level of infiltration” of criminal groups in the State “is very great” and called the Ecuadorian prison system “failed.”
A soldier participates in a joint security operation between the National Police and the Armed Forces at the Regional 8 prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Marcos PIN/AFP).
Local media reported that on Monday there were incidents in several prisons in the country, including the retention of prison guards, without any statement from authorities.
The last time “Fito” was seen was last September, when he was temporarily transferred to another maximum security prison in Guayaquil following the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
Then, he appeared in photographs obese, with long hair and a prominent beard. Thousands of uniformed officers guarded it, in one of the largest military and police operations carried out there by former President Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023).
Noboa in the spotlight
Given the suspicions of “Fito’s” escape, eyes are on the young president Daniel Noboa, in power since November 23.
This was the first time that the ruler ordered a military and police deployment in the Guayaquil prisons.
During the government of his predecessor Lasso, the entry of uniformed personnel into prisons became recurrent, although several times these operations ended in shootouts with dozens of deaths.
As part of his security strategy once morest drug trafficking violence, Noboa announced this week that he will build two maximum security prisons similar to the one built by President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and which is currently full of gang members.
In order to reduce the prison population, the president has said he plans to expel regarding 1,500 foreign inmates, most of them from Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
Massacres inside Ecuador’s prisons leave at least 460 inmates dead since 2021.
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