The fugitive chief of a violent Ecuadorian gang that trusted hitmen, bribes and armed forces guns to do industry has been indicted in New York Town on fees he imported hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the USA, government mentioned Wednesday.
José Adolfo Macías Villamar — whose nickname is “Fito” — has led Los Choneros and its “community of assassins and drug and weapon traffickers” since a minimum of 2020, U.S. Lawyer John Durham mentioned in a news release. Macías Villamar escaped from a jail in Ecuador final 12 months and isn’t in U.S. custody.
“The defendant used to be a ruthless chief and prolific drug trafficker for a violent transnational prison group,” he mentioned.
With an intensive prison document together with fees of homicide and arranged crime, Macías Villamar has cultivated a cult standing amongst fellow gang individuals and the general public in his house nation. Whilst at the back of bars in 2023, he launched a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian other people” whilst flanked by means of armed males. He additionally threw events in jail, the place he had get right of entry to to the whole thing from liquor to roosters for cockfighting fits.
The seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn fees Macias Villamar and an unidentified co-defendant with world cocaine distribution, conspiracy and guns counts, together with smuggling firearms from the USA.
Los Choneros hired other people to shop for firearms, elements and ammunition in the USA and smuggle them into Ecuador, in keeping with the indictment. Cocaine would glide into the USA with the assistance of Mexican cartels. In combination, the teams managed key cocaine trafficking routes via Ecuador, violently concentrated on legislation enforcement, politicians, attorneys and civilians who stood in the best way.
“Los Choneros operated an infinite community chargeable for the cargo and distribution of multi-ton amounts of cocaine from South The us via Central The us and Mexico to the USA and somewhere else,” the indictment says. “The majority of medication trafficked by means of Los Choneros had been imported into the USA, the place the medicine had been ate up.”
In January 2024, Macias Villamar used to be found out lacking from his jail cellular in Quito, Ecuador, the place he used to be serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking. A 60-day state of emergency used to be declared after his break out, the BBC reported.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Inside by way of AP, Document 
Ultimate 12 months, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions at the gang Los Choneros in addition to Macias Villamar.
Previous this month, the Ecuadorian govt introduced that the praise for the seize of Macias Villamar can be greater to $1 million.
Los Choneros is one in every of 20 criminal gangs declared “terrorist teams” by means of Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa, who has led a warfare on drug gangs blamed for a surge in violent crime within the once-peaceful South American nation.
Noboa declared a state of emergency and deployed troops within the streets and violence-riddled prisons, leading to a slight dip in murder charges in 2024 from the former 12 months. The president took motion final 12 months after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and safety forces. A prosecutor investigating the attack used to be later shot dead.
Previous this 12 months, a pace-setter of one in every of Ecuador’s greatest crime syndicates, Los Lobos, used to be arrested at his home within the coastal town of Portoviejo. The U.S. last year declared Los Lobos to be the biggest drug trafficking group in Ecuador.
