Police in Córdoba (western Argentina) arrested several relatives and people close to Ecuadorian drug trafficker José Adolfo “Fito” Macías, a fugitive from justice and considered one of those responsible for the wave of violence in Ecuador.
Those detained in the operation carried out on Thursday night (18) had rented a house in Valle del Golf, an exclusive neighborhood in Malagueño, on the outskirts of Córdoba, and paid in cash with dollars, according to the newspaper The Voice of the Interiorwhich cites as a source Alberto Bietti, director of Criminal Intelligence at the Córdoba police, responsible for the investigation together with the Anti-Drug Police Force (FPA).
Although the identities and numbers of those detained have not been officially announced, local press reports that there are eight, including “Fito” Macias' wife, Inda Mariela Peñarrieta Tuarez, and three of their children, 21-year-old Michelle, Ilse María , aged 12, and Lian Sejam, aged four.
The other detainees, according to the newspaper La Nationare a maid, Denny Yadira Laines Basurto, Javier Macías Alcivar, a nephew of the capo, and Ángel Zambrano Chiquito, a family friend.
The detainees were taken from the house in Malagueño to the Provincial Directorate of Aeronautics, from where they boarded a plane to Buenos Aires to be deported to Ecuador.
Argentina's Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, is expected to hold a press conference this Friday (19) to report on the mega-operation that resulted in an investigation that began four days ago.
The newspaper La Nation highlighted that, after it was confirmed that the people living in the exclusive Valle del Golf neighborhood were relatives of the Ecuadorian fugitive from justice, the National Directorate of Migration (DNM) intervened in the case and decided to expel Fito's wife and children from the country Macías.
Fito Macías is the leader of Los Choneros, one of the armed criminal groups that the Ecuadorian government considers responsible for the wave of violence that puts the country in check and which includes the murder of prosecutor César Suárez on Wednesday (17), in Guayaquil.
Sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder, Macias, accused of having ties to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, carried out several escapes, the last of which on January 7, when an escalation of violence that led the Ecuadorian government to declare a state of emergency and the existence of an internal armed conflict.
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