Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America editor, BBC News Online
MAURICIO TORRES/EPA
Adolfo Macías Villamar was taken to a maximum-security jail
Police in Ecuador have recaptured the country’s most wanted fugitive, drug lord Adolfo Macías Villamar.
Macías, also known by the alias “Fito”, is the leader of Los Choneros, a powerful criminal gang which is blamed for Ecuador’s transformation from a tourist haven to a country with one of the highest murder rates in the region.
He is also suspected of having ordered the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.
Police tracked him down to what they described as an underground bunker below a luxury home in the city of Manta.
A police spokesman said no shots were fired in the 10-hour joint operation by police and the military.
A large number of officers first monitored and surrounded the three-storey home in the Monterrey neighbourhood of Manta, on the Ecuadorian coast.
When they stormed the building, they found a sliding trap door, disguised to look like part of the stone floor, from which metal stairs led to Fito’s underground hideout.
The “bunker” was fitted out with air conditioning, a bed, a fan and a fridge.
The house itself boasted a gym with a punching bag and a games room where he could play pool and table football.
Fito reportedly put up no resistance and was transferred by air to the port city of Guayaquil, where several of Ecuador’s largest prisons are located.
Footage of his arrival in Guayaquil shows him wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops while being led by armed security officers to a parked SUV before being transfered to the La Roca maximum-security prison.
Mauricio Torres/EPA
Fito has escaped from prison twice before so security was high
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa praised the security forces for capturing Fito and said that he would be extradited to the US, where he has been charged with cocaine smuggling.
Fito escaped from La Regional prison in Guayaquil in January 2024 with the help of at least two guards, prompting global media attention.
It triggered a wave of deadly prison riots, in which guards were taken hostage and which prompted Noboa to declare a state of emergency.
But Fito was already notorious prior to his escape. During his time in prison – while serving a 34-year sentence for murder and drug trafficking – he rose to the top of the Los Choneros gang after its previous leader was killed.
From behind bars, he co-ordinated the gang’s activities, which include drug trafficking and extortion.
He is also suspected of having ordered the murder of politician Fernando Villavicencio, who was gunned down 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, which was partly recorded inside the prison, shows him caressing a fighting cockerel and freely chatting to fellow inmates.
The gang leader’s escape in 2024 was a blow to Noboa’s government. The Ecuadorian leader had assumed office in November 2023 after being elected on a promise to combat the growing power of the gangs.
On Wednesday, Noboa said that the drug lord’s capture was proof his approach – which includes bringing in laws giving him sweeping powers to declare an “armed internal conflict”, and which allows police to conduct searches without a warrant – was working.
“More [drug lords] will fall, we will regain [control of] the country,” he posted on X.