This week, Ecuador declared a state of emergency after the disappearance of one of the “country's biggest criminals” from a prison. The episode gave rise to a national crisis in public security, with several records of attacks orchestrated by criminal organizations, vehicle explosions and kidnapping of police officers.
The name behind the chaos is José Adolfo Macías, 44 years old, also known as “Fito”. He is one of the only living founders of the criminal faction Los Choneros, which has ties to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.
Fito, who escaped from prison on another occasion, was serving a 34-year sentence for involvement in organized crime, drug trafficking and homicide. Since 2011, he has been detained in a prison on the Ecuadorian coast, in the city of Guayaquil, where eight people have died in the last two days amid the unrest. Since his new escape, confirmed by authorities, riots have occurred in at least six penitentiaries, with several reports of guards taken hostage.
He became the main leader of Los Choneros around 2020, after the death of Júnior Roldán, the faction's biggest reference until then, presumed dead in Colombia. Since the incident, Fito has led the gang's activities from his cell in Guayaquil, a complex that houses around 12,000 inmates.
According to the local press, the criminal “disappeared” days before his transfer to a maximum security prison, which, according to prison experts consulted by the American newspaper, The New York Timesmay have motivated his escape and the prison revolts.
The leader of Los Choneros was born in Manta, in the Ecuadorian province of Manabí, known for being a strategic territory for drug trafficking in the country and the birthplace of the criminal faction.
The Ecuadorian newspaper Firstfruitss states that the gang member graduated in law in Guayaquil prison and in May 2023 his assets were valued at more than US$23 million (R$112 million).
One of the prisoners who lived with Macías in one of the prisons he passed through claims that the gang leader built swimming pools in areas of the pavilions intended for the leisure of inmates, organized parties, recorded videos, held press conferences and used armed drones inside the center prison.
The gang is also accused of maintaining a strong extortion scheme against the rest of the prisoners in the penitentiaries they control in Ecuador. “Prisoners have no choice, they have to be accomplices. They threaten us and our families. Los Choneros charge prisoners a 'monthly fee', not counting the things they force us to buy,” the source told the newspaper, under the caption condition of anonymity.
Security experts say that a quarter of the country's 36 prisons are controlled by different gangs, the main ones being Los Choneros and Los Lobos.
The criminal organization led by Fito was also responsible, according to Ecuadorian security forces, for the wave of violence that culminated in the murder of the right-wing candidate for president of Ecuador Fernando Villavicencio, who said he had suffered threats from the group.
The president inaugurated this year, Daniel Noboa, said after the riots that his government would regain control of prisons, which had become gang barracks and recruitment centers.
In recent years, violence has gained enormous proportions in Ecuador as organized crime competes for lucrative drug trafficking routes to the United States and Europe.
Another important fugitive criminal
The National Service for Comprehensive Assistance to Adult Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the country's prison entity, also confirmed this Tuesday (9) the escape of another criminal: Fabricio Colón Pico, who had been arrested after the attorney general of the State, Diana Salazar, having reported an alleged plan to attack her.
The SNAI indicated in a statement that during the early hours of the morning “violent events occurred between people deprived of their liberty, the National Police and prison officials”.
Colón Pico's escape occurred while the state of exception was in force, with a nighttime curfew, decreed by President Daniel Noboa, at a time when disturbances were occurring in around six prisons in the country.
Colón Pico was arrested last week in an operation carried out by the Public Ministry and the police in the north of Quito, as part of an investigation into the alleged crime of kidnapping that occurred in recent months. In the operation to capture him, three high-quality vehicles were found – an armored vehicle -, cash and ammunition.
The attorney general identified Colón Pico, known by the pseudonym “Capitán Pico” and linked to the criminal group Los Lobos, as the person responsible for an alleged plan to murder her.
At least 10 people have died so far in the unprecedented wave of violence unleashed by criminal organizations in Ecuador, according to local press reports this Wednesday (10). The last two deaths reported in the attacks recorded this Tuesday (9) are two police officers “vilely murdered by armed criminals” in Nobol, said the National Police.
According to those responsible for investigating the current crisis, 70 people have already been arrested, three agents taken hostage have been released and 17 fugitives recaptured, in addition to weapons, ammunition, explosives and vehicles having been seized.
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