“Fito”, the largest drug trafficker in the equator, extradited to the United States

The Ecuadorian government extradited Sunday to the United States Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito”, the largest equator drug trafficker, arrested at the end of June after a year and a half of runners, prison authority announced.

The American prosecution accused in April “Fito” of cocaine and weapon trafficking. Furthermore, John Durham. For example, a prosecutor of a Brooklyn court, then described him as “a ruthless leader and a prolific drug trafficker on behalf of a violent transnational criminal organization”.

The drug baron “left the Center for Deprivation of Liberty La Roca”. Meanwhile, guarded by police and soldiers, “as part of an extradition process,” said penitentiary authority (SNAI), in a message sent to journalists.

From his cell in a high security prison. “Fito” had agreed last week to be extradited to the United States during a videoconference “fito”, largest drug trafficker equator, audience.

He thus became the first Ecuadorian to be extradited by his own country since the reinforcement in equator of this procedure by referendum in 2024. a measure defended by the Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa in his fight against organized crime.

“We send him with great pleasure to respond to American law,” said Noboa during an interview with CNN.

Choneros gang

“Fito” had escaped in January 2024 from the Penitentiary Center of Guayaquil (southwest of the equator) where he had been serving since 2011 a sentence of 34 years’ imprisonment for organized crime. drug trafficking and murder.

Head of one of the country’s main gangs. the Choneros, which reigns in particular over cocaine traffic, “Fito” was associated with the assassination in August 2023 of one of the main candidates for the Ecuadorian presidential election, Fernando Villavicencio.

Former taxi driver. he had become the number one public enemy in Ecuador, the “fito”, largest drug trafficker equator, authorities designating him as a “criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics”.

His escape had sparked an unprecedented wave of violence in the country. killing dozens of dead and generating mutinies in several prisons, street fights triggered by gangs and a hostage -taking on a television set.

Daniel Noboa then declared the country in “internal armed conflict”. deployed the army to try to neutralize the twenty criminal groups involved.

Because of its situation between Colombia. Peru – the world’s largest producing countries in cocaine – and its strategic ports on the Pacific, the equator has become in recent years the theater of violent clashes for control of territories intended for the delivery of cocaine to the United States and Europe.

The choneros gang has links with the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. the Del Golfo clan in Colombia, the largest exporter of cocaine in the world, and the Balkan mafias, according to the “fito”, largest drug trafficker equator, Ecuadorian observatory of organized crime.

More than 70% of all the cocaine produced in the world now transits through the ports of the equator. In 2024, the country entered a record of 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine.