Ecuador most wanted drug lord 'Fito' captured hiding in bunker-WATCH

Ecuador's most wanted man and leader of the Los Choneros gang, Jose Adolfo Macias, was arrested on Wednesday (June 25) , said the country's President Daniel Noboa. Macias, alias ‘Fito’, had escaped in January 2024 from a prison in Guayaquil after receiving a 34-year term for homicide and drug trafficking. His escape triggered a rampage of violence in Ecuador, leading Noboa to declare an internal armed conflict and consider Los Choneros and 21 other gangs operating within the country to be terror organisations.

In February 2024, Los Choneros and Macias were sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury for their drug trafficking and violent criminal activities in Ecuador and throughout the continent. Noboa said that Ecuador is proceeding with extradition to the US and has a pending response from American authorities. The police spokesman said no shots were discharged during the 10-hour combined operation by police and the army.

A number of officers initially monitored and cordoned off the three-storey house in the Monterrey district of Manta, on the Ecuadorian coast. When they stormed into the building, they found a sliding trapdoor, disguised as part of the stone floor, from which metal stairs led to Fito's subterranean lair.

The ‘bunker’ was equipped with air conditioning, bed, fan and a fridge. The house itself had a gym with punching bag and a games room where he could play pool and table football.

Fito reportedly put no resistance and was flown to the port city of Guayaquil, home to several of Ecuador's largest prisons. Video of his arrival in Guayaquil showed him dressed in shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops and being escorted by armed security officers to a parked SUV before being moved to the La Roca maximum-security prison.

Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa hailed the security authorities for capturing Fito and said that he would be extradited to the US, against which he has been indicted for smuggling cocaine. Fito had escaped from Guayaquil's La Regional prison in January 2024 with at least two guards' assistance, which garnered international media attention.

From prison, he coordinated the gang's operations, including drug trafficking and extortion. He is also suspected of having given the instruction to kill politician Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead at a campaign rally just days before the 2023 election.

Under Fito's leadership, Los Choneros forged links with Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel, an alliance which experts say has led to the gruesome tactics commonly used by Mexican cartels - such as decapitations and mutilations - spreading to Ecuador. Shortly before his prison escape, he also appeared in a narcocorrido - a slick music video in which his daughter glorifies her father's criminal exploits. The video, partly captured within the prison walls, documents him stroking a fighting cockerel and chatting openly to inmates.

The escape of the gang leader in 2024 was a setback for Noboa's administration. Ecuador's leader had taken office in November 2023 following his election on a vow to tackle the surging influence of the gangs.

On Wednesday (June 25), Noboa said that the arrest of the drug lord was evidence his strategy - which involves introducing legislations granting him broad powers to proclaim an ‘armed internal conflict’, and which allows the police to make searches without a warrant - was paying off.

"More [drug lords] will fall, we will regain [control of] the country," he posted on X.