Notorious Ecuadorian gang leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar – known as Fito – will face court in the US after being extradited, his lawyer has said.
The South American country’s most-wanted fugitive vanished from prison in January 2024, with authorities desperately searching for him until he was finally recaptured last month.
“Fito” has an extensive criminal record including charges of murder and organised crime, and he was sentenced to 34 years behind bars in 2011.
While neither the US nor Ecuador have confirmed his extradition, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa previously said the move had been requested – and vowed that more notorious gang members “will fall”.
The prisoner who lived like a king
Even after being thrown behind bars, “Fito” continued to serve as the leader of the Los Choneros gang up until his escape.
He also enjoyed access to mobile phones and the internet, watched TV and kept pets.
“His prison cell basically resembled a hotel room,” Annette Idler, a professor of global security at the University of Oxford, previously told Sky News. “He had access to women who were brought to him,” she adds. “It was a luxury room for him.”
Colourful murals of the gang leader were even daubed across the prison walls, including one of him flanked by two assault rifles.
But then in January last year, he mysteriously vanished, leading to a nationwide manhunt. Officials are yet to explain how he escaped.
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How Fito lived like a king in prison
Wanted poster of “Fito” from January 2024. Pic: Ecuador’s Ministry of Interior via AP, File
‘Fito’ recaptured
After more than a year in hiding, “Fito” was found in his hometown of Manta last month.
Footage from the Ecuadorian army showed a uniformed officer aiming a gun at the drug trafficker’s head after finding him hiding in a small hole beneath a kitchen counter.
The announcement of his arrest came in the same week that another gang leader was confirmed to have escaped from an Ecuadorian prison.
Extradition to the US
“Fito” will now face court in the US following his reported extradition from Ecuador.
Flight data shows that a US government plane departed from Guayaquil after 2 pm local time on Sunday.
“Mr Macias and I will appear tomorrow before the Brooklyn federal court… where he will plead not guilty,” his lawyer, Alexei Schacht, said. “After, he will be held in a to-be-determined prison.”
The US Department of Justice has stated that under Macias’ direction, Los Choneros committed violent acts against law enforcement, politicians, lawyers, prosecutors and civilians.
Ecuador’s government says the gang exercises vast control over the nation’s prisons, which are plagued by corruption and overcrowding.
