QUITO, Ecuador — Ever since Ecuador’s most infamous gang chief vanished from his jail cell in January 2024, authorities have been looking out the world, offering a $1 million reward for data resulting in the seize of Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito.”
It turned out the nation’s most needed man was hiding out at a member of the family’s mansion in his personal hometown.
Ecuadorian security forces recaptured the kingpin Wednesday at an underground bunker beneath a marble-walled home within the port metropolis of Manta, some 260 kilometers (161 miles) southwest of the capital of Quito.
In a remarks to reporters Thursday, authorities revealed additional particulars about their efforts to find Macías and the hiding place the place he spent his remaining weeks as a fugitive.
Authorities had issued a world arrest warrant for Macías, who was serving a 34-year jail sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and homicide in a Guayaquil prison before his shock escape. Macías can also be wanted by the United States on accusations of trafficking medication and smuggling weapons.
A month in the past, authorities closed in on the drug trafficker’s household, arresting a number of of his kin, seizing their property and raiding their companies. Inside Minister John Reimberg described the crackdown on Macías’ household as a “psychological operation” essential to safety forces’ efforts to find the infamous chief of Ecuador’s “Los Choneros” gang.
“It contributes to an individual’s battle, their lack of management,” he mentioned in a press convention Thursday.
However what put Ecuadorian intelligence on his path was the bizarre habits of a municipal transit official in Manta, who stopped displaying as much as work a number of months in the past. Surveilling the official led intelligence providers to Macías’ internal circle, in keeping with Víctor Ordóñez, a nationwide police commander.
Authorities found that this official frequented a swanky three-story constructing geared up with an indoor pool, well-appointed health club and recreation room and outfitted with gleaming marble flooring and partitions.
Furnishings was wrapped in plastic and flat display TVs had been nonetheless of their containers. Everywhere in the home had been statues of Saint Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes honored by Mexican drug traffickers. Los Choneros is believed to have been one of many first from Ecuador to forge ties with Mexican drug cartels.
Ordóñez additionally mentioned that authorities obtained remaining affirmation that Macías can be in the home on the time of the 10-hourlong raid from his younger daughter.
Within the predawn darkness Wednesday, a whole bunch of closely armed troopers and safety officers stormed the mansion and blocked off the encircling streets. However Macías was nowhere to be discovered.
Safety forces flew drones overhead and observed that the land round the home appeared uneven, with suspiciously altered vegetation that urged infrastructure and potential air flow beneath the floor.
The fugitive was hunkered down in an air-conditioned bunker that would solely be accessed by means of a small hatch, its entrance hid by a cement and tile flooring within the laundry room and openable solely from the within.
Police introduced in heavy equipment to begin excavating, and when the roof above his head started to collapse Macías acknowledged that seize was inevitable, Minister Reimberg mentioned. The choice was being crushed to dying.
“When this occurred, Fito panicked,” he mentioned. “He opened the hatch the place army and police personnel had been situated and left the outlet.”
Inside moments, Ecuador’s strongest drug lord was writhing on the bottom with a gun pointed at his head, pressured to repeat his full identify out loud.
Shirtless and with an unkempt beard, a haggard “Fito” was shepherded exterior by a squad of officers and dropped at the nation’s highest-security jail, referred to as La Roca, or the Rock, in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest metropolis.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa introduced after the seize that the Macías can be extradited to the U.S. to face prosecution. He was indicted in New York Metropolis in April on fees of importing and distributing hundreds of kilos of cocaine within the U.S.
“We have now finished our half,” Reimberg mentioned. “I count on the U.S. extradition request to reach within the subsequent few hours or at most the subsequent few days.”