Ecuador’s most infamous drug lord has agreed to be extradited to the US to face cocaine and weapons smuggling expenses, a courtroom in Quito stated Friday.
Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito,” was captured in June after escaping from a most safety jail final 12 months in a jailbreak that sparked a extreme wave of gang violence.
Macias, head of the “Los Choneros” gang, is needed in the US on a number of expenses. A seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn expenses Macías and an unidentified co-defendant with worldwide cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, together with smuggling firearms from the U.S.
The previous taxi driver turned crime boss grew to become the prime goal of Ecuadoran legislation enforcement early final 12 months after escaping from jail within the southwestern port of Guayaquil.
Drug trafficker Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, is guarded by Ecuador’s Inside Minister John Reimberg (R) and navy personnel upon arrival on the air base in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on June 25, 2025, after his recapture in Manta, Manabi Province.
MARCOS PIN/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
He had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for involvement in organized crime, drug trafficking and homicide.
Final 12 months, the U.S. categorised Los Choneros as some of the violent gangs and affirmed its connection to highly effective Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the encircling area.
Authorities in Ecuador have categorised the gang as a terrorist group. President Daniel Noboa’s authorities on the time launched “wanted” posters and supplied $1 million for info resulting in Macias’s recapture.
Macías’ escape “triggered widespread riots, bombings, kidnappings, the assassination of a prominent prosecutor, and an armed attack on a TV network during a live broadcast,” the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Ecuador stated final 12 months.
The Ecuadorian authorities and drug mafias additionally declared conflict on one another, and Noboa gave orders to “neutralize” prison gangs after gunmen stormed and opened hearth within the TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and safety forces.
After months of pursuit, Macias was recaptured final month in an enormous navy and police operation during which no photographs have been fired.
He was discovered hiding in a bunker hid beneath flooring tiles in a luxurious dwelling within the fishing port of Manta, and Noboa declared he could be extradited “the sooner the better.”
“More will fall, we will reclaim the country. No truce,” Noboa stated in an X put up on the time. “We have done our part to proceed with Fito’s extradition to the United States.”
“Fito” dominated infamous jail the place he earned legislation diploma
Macias, wearing an orange jail uniform, took half in a courtroom listening to Friday by video hyperlink from a high-security jail in Guayaquil.
In response to a decide’s query, he replied, “Yes, I accept (extradition).”
Given his consent, the courtroom stated in an announcement “the pertinent procedure for the transfer process” will now observe, with Noboa having to signal the official handover papers.
Safety forces stand outdoors the Nationwide Courtroom of Justice following a listening to for the extradition of Ecuadorean gang chief Jose Adolfo Macias, often known as “Fito,” who on Friday accepted the courtroom’s request to be extradited to the US to face drug and gun expenses, in Quito, Ecuador, July 11, 2025.
Karen Toro / REUTERS
This could make Macias the primary Ecuadoran extradited by his nation for the reason that measure was written into legislation final 12 months after a referendum during which Noboa sought the approval of measures to spice up his conflict on prison gangs.
Ecuador, as soon as a peaceable haven between the world’s two high cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent times as enemy gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for management.
Gang wars have largely performed out contained in the nation’s prisons, the place Macias wielded immense management.
He was the unofficial boss of his Guayaquil jail, the place authorities discovered photos glorifying the gangster, weapons and U.S. {dollars}.
Movies of events he held within the jail confirmed the usage of fireworks and a mariachi band. In a single clip, he appeared waving, laughing and petting a preventing rooster.
Macias earned his legislation diploma behind bars.
By the point he escaped, he was thought of a suspect within the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.
Quickly after Macias’s jail break, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the navy and tanks into the streets to “neutralize” the gangs.
Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan — the world’s largest cocaine exporter — and Balkan mafias, in keeping with the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.
Greater than 70 % of all cocaine produced on the planet now passes by way of Ecuador’s ports, in keeping with authorities knowledge.
In 2024, the nation seized a report 294 tons of medicine, primarily cocaine.
Extra from CBS Information
