Nobody knows where José Adolfo Macías Villamar is since January 7. The most dangerous drug trafficker in Ecuador, and leader of the bloodthirsty Los Choneros gang, has vanished from the Guayaquil regional prison where he has been serving a sentence for more than a decade. It is not the first time that he has done it – in 2013 he escaped with other prisoners – but his escape this time has revealed the existence of “leaks” in the institutions of the Andean country. 'Fito', as this criminal is known with more than a dozen judicial proceedings behind him, disappeared hours before a raid was carried out at the penitentiary center. Now around 3,000 police and soldiers are looking for him.
The alarm went off on Sunday when the operation taking place in the Guayas prison – where more than 12,000 inmates live – revealed that this “criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics” was not in his cell. The raid made it possible to seize mobile phones, plugs, knives… but was marred by the disappearance of 'Fito', 44 years old, whose fame rose to the rest of the world in the summer after the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in the middle of the campaign. A few days before, from the prison itself, the leader of Los Choneros had threatened him. Then he was transferred to a maximum security area surrounded by more than 2,000 agents, and in the middle of almost a mutiny of his colleagues who refused to relocate him, which gives an idea of the respect he arouses as he passes by.
'Fito' has come to have thousands of individuals (between 12,000 and 20,000 at the band's peak) under his command as leader of Los Choneros, a position he assumed after the murder of the previous boss, Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias ' Rasquiña'. His rise made him one of the most wanted criminals in Ecuador, like now, with the difference that this time he has outwitted the system to his face. The Secretary of Communication of the Ecuadorian Government, emerging from the 2023 elections marked by unprecedented violence, recognized this Monday that the level of penetration of criminal groups in public institutions is “very great.” “Most likely, there were leaks and it was a matter of hours,” explained Roberto Izurieta on Teleamazonas about the 'chance' that the leak occurred just before the raid.
Alliances with the Sinaloa cartel
It took the authorities about fifteen hours to detect the escape of 'Fito', who has experience in sneaking out of prison. In February 2013, he remained missing for ten months without anyone being able to explain how he had gotten out of La Roca prison along with fifteen other members of Los Choneros. But it doesn't seem like it's going to be very complicated for someone who has worked in the underworld for years. The leader of this gang that has forged alliances with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel – in fact, the group functions as its operational arm in Ecuador – and with FARC dissidents is involved in 14 legal proceedings. For robbery, organized crime, possession of weapons, murder… The maximum sentence that weighs on him, and that he was now serving in Guayaquil, is 34 years.
Thousands of police and soldiers participate in the search for 'Fito'.
Rodrigo Buendía/AFP
The Ecuadorian Executive has assumed after the escape that the country's prison system “is failed.” One of his first decisions after learning what happened is to convene an emergency security council, headed by the president, Daniel Noboa, but “entering the prisons with a failed system like we have is an example of enormous value, a very complex logistical example », warned Izurieta, who highlighted that the agents involved in the operation «risk their lives.» The authorities have expressed their “confidence” that they will find 'Fito'. Meanwhile, “the search continues.”
A band that disputes the terrain with Los Lobos and Los Tigretones
The Los Choneros gang, one of the five most dangerous gangs operating in Ecuador, began its criminal history in the nineties. Its birthplace, Chone, a city in the coastal province of Manabí, baptized its members, who accumulate crimes such as extortion, arms trafficking, hitmen and drug trafficking. In the drug business, precisely, they have made a huge hole for themselves, especially with the transit of cocaine from Colombia to central or northern America. The ties woven with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel or FARC dissidents have also helped this. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, 'Fito', has been its leader since the murder of the previous leader, Jorge Luis Zambrano, known as 'Rasquiña'. The groups of Los Lobos and Los Tigretones stand out as their main enemies.
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