2024-01-10 09:26:32
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, is one of the most powerful criminals in Ecuador and had been in prison for almost 13 years. He is now on the run. It is not known when he left or how he escaped from the Guayaquil Regional Prison.
On Sunday, when the military and police forces entered the Regional prison, they did not find ‘Fito’ in his cell, who is the leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang, linked to drug trafficking, hitmen, extortion, among other high-profile crimes. impact.
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Macías was serving a 34-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, murder and organized crime. On Sunday he was going to be transferred to a maximum security center known as La Roca, also located in Guayaquil, as part of President Daniel Noboa’s new prison policy.
The last time Fito was seen publicly was in September of last year, days following the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who before dying had reported that Macías threatened him. In photographs distributed by the police, he was observed to be obese, with long hair and a prominent beard.
Photograph released by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces showing Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang, while being transferred to the La Roca maximum security complex in Guayaquil. (AFP).
After the crime in Villavicencio, Fito was transferred to La Roca, but a judge annulled said order and ordered that he be returned to the Regional prison.
Before Fito’s escape, President Noboa had announced that he would build two maximum security prisons similar to the one built by President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador for gang members.
On Monday, once the escape of the leader of Los Choneros was confirmed, the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI) reported that riots were taking place in several prisons in the country. He also indicated that an unknown number of prison guards were taken hostage.
Hours later, President Noboa declared a state of emergency in the country to allow the Armed Forces to intervene in the prison system.
On the same Monday night, when the state of emergency was already in effect, criminal gangs kidnapped four police officers in Machala and Quito.
Image of a pedestrian bridge damaged by an explosion late on January 8, on the General Rumi Ahui highway in the Monjas sector in Quito. (Photo by Galo PAGUAY / AFP).
Additionally, in cities like Esmeraldas, criminals set several vehicles on fire.
Homicides in Ecuador. (AFP).
In 2022, Ecuador was the tenth most violent country
of Latin America and the Caribbean, following an 82% increase in murders compared to the previous year. In 2023, without closed data, Ecuador would be among the top three, according to Insight Crime.
Aerial view of Regional 8 prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, taken on January 7, 2024 by the National Police and the Armed Forces. (Photo by Marcos PIN/AFP).
How did alias ‘Fito escape?
One of the great unknowns of this complex situation in Ecuador is how Fito might have escaped from the Regional prison, which was his private bunker and from where he continued to control his criminal gang.
The Secretary of Communication of the government of Ecuador, Roberto Izurieta, tried to rehearse an explanation for the leak and told the Teleamazonas channel on Monday that “most likely” there were “infiltrations” regarding an imminent security operation on Sunday, the 7th. January in the Regional and Macías escaped “hours before.” No other official version has been offered.
More than 3,000 police and soldiers have been searching for Fito since Sunday. They have searched the ceilings and even the sewers of the prison under the premise that he might be hiding in the prison complex.
According to the Primicias portal, alias Fito exercised so much power in the prison that he might have escaped much earlier.
Primicias also reported that police intelligence has ruled out that Macías escaped through a tunnel.
Initially, it was indicated that the leader of Los Choneros had escaped along with 21 other prisoners, but following the count it was determined that until Tuesday in the Regional only Fito and one of the men in charge of his security were missing, according to Primicias.
If Fito escaped alone, says Primicias, the most credible hypothesis for his escape would be that he left through the prison door. He might have faked a doctor’s appointment or dressed as a police officer. Furthermore, he might have escaped on Sunday, as the Government believes, or at the end of December.
For its part, the Prosecutor’s Office filed charges once morest two prison guards whom it linked to Macías’ escape.
Imprisoned since 2011, Fito has already escaped from prison once. In 2013, along with other prisoners, he managed to evade the controls of the La Roca maximum security prison, but he was recaptured following three months.
They had escaped by sailing in a boat on the Daule River, which runs parallel to the prison.
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito”, leader of Los Choneros.
Who is alias Fito?
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, is the leader of the Los Choneros criminal organization, one of the largest in Ecuador and which responds to the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. His strongest enemy is the Lobos, a gang linked to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), also from Mexico, and mafias from Albania.
Drug trafficking in Ecuador. (AFP).
Fito took sole command of Los Choneros following Jorge Luis Zambrano González, alias Rasquiña, with whom he shared leadership for 13 years, was murdered on December 28, 2020.
According to the Insight Crime portal, during the time he was in prison Fito continued to manage the criminal activities of Los Choneros, such as drug trafficking operations, he also spread extortion practices and ordered murders.
Furthermore, while behind bars he obtained a law degree, according to Primicias.
The same medium assures that in May 2023, Fito had more than US$23 million between front men, shell companies and other illicit activities.
Furthermore, in the Los Choneros prison, under the leadership of Fito, they had established an extortion scheme once morest the rest of the prisoners.
According to the Anti-Narcotics Investigation Directorate, criminal activities within the prison generated up to US$70,000 per week per cell for the gang.
One of the prisoners who was held in the Regional told Primicias that in that prison there were swimming pools in the spaces of the pavilions designated for walking. He also said Fito organized parties, recorded videos and brought in weapons using drones.
“The guides have no choice but to become accomplices, they threaten them and their families. As prisoners, Los Choneros charge us between US$10 and US$20 a week for our stay, without taking into account what they force you to buy,” the man told Primicias under the condition of anonymity.
An expert in money laundering, Fito worked for Washington Prado Álava, alias Gerald, who was the largest drug trafficker in Ecuador and lived in Manabí, indicates InSight Crime. This boss is currently serving prison in the United States.
Before his arrest in 2017, Gerald was betrayed by Fito, who along with a police captain and his wife hatched a plan to get him off the road.
With Gerald out of the game, Los Choneros filled the void he left in Ecuador’s drug trade.
“Los Choneros had the structure, strength and contacts necessary to consolidate themselves as the most powerful drug gang in Ecuador. They took over the space controlled by Gerald, who was accused of buying drugs from Colombia and Peru and sending them to North America. The Choneros took control of the structure and knowledge,” Mauro Naranjo, an Ecuadorian journalist with extensive experience covering issues related to organized crime, told InSight Crime.
Who are Los Choneros?
Los Choneros is a criminal organization originating from the canton of Chone, in the province of Manabí.
Jorge Bismark Véliz España, alias ‘Lieutenant Spain’ or ‘Chonero’, was its founder in the 90s.
According to the Primicias.ec portal, police records from the time show that Los Choneros became the armed wing of a Colombian drug trafficking cartel, something that gave them more power and weapons.
‘Lieutenant Spain’ was murdered in 2007 in a confrontation with the criminal gang Los Queseros.
The position in command of Los Choneros was taken by Jorge Luis Zambrano González, alias ‘Rasquiña’, who was head of Las Águilas. He allied himself with Los Fatales, then led by alias Fito.
‘Rasquiña’ had a prison order once morest him for the murder of a person identified as Jairo Carreño. He was arrested in June 2011 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to Primicias.
In 2013, ‘Rasquiña’, ‘Fito’ and other members of Los Choneros escaped from the La Roca maximum security prison. But in November of that same year he was recaptured in Bogotá, Colombia.
In June 2020, ‘Rasquiña’ was released following a questioned court decision. In December of that same year, he was murdered in a shopping center in Manta.
The death of ‘Rasquiña’ left alias ‘Fito’ as the new leader of Los Choneros. He exercised this leadership from the Guayaquil Regional Prison.
The Choneros have formed alliances with the Sinaloa Cartel and elements of the former FARC to transport cocaine shipments from the Colombian border to the port of Guayaquil, according to a Washington Post report.
But the death of ‘Rasquiña’ and the continuous prison massacres that have occurred in Ecuador have weakened Los Choneros, as dissident groups and new gangs such as Los Lobos have emerged, which in alliance with other groups have taken away drug trafficking routes.
“With Rasquiña dead, each commander reclaimed his leadership, emboldened by the support of the Mexican gangs. That is where the war begins,” journalist Naranjo told Insight Crime.
Today the Lobos can claim victory, as they have become the most powerful criminal group in Ecuador. “They control the transportation, storage and trafficking routes of cocaine through the country, and contaminate the containers to take it to other countries,” Max Campos, a security analyst and former vice minister of the Interior of Ecuador, told Insight Crime.
In addition to drug trafficking, the Lobos are dedicated to illegal gold mining, extortion and human trafficking.
Since 2020, the Lobos have been in alliance with two other bloodthirsty gangs, the Tiguerones and the Chone Killers.
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