A notorious drug lord hid in his bunker. Then the authorities closed in.

Drug trafficker Adolfo Macias (centre), alias Fito, is guarded by Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg (right) and military personnel upon arrival at the air base in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on June 25, after his recapture in Manta, Manabi Province. Photo / Marcos Pin, AFP

Intelligence officials had been on a fugitive drug lord’s trail for more than a year, in a high-priority operation they called “Zeus II”.

They looked for José Adolfo Macías Villamar in multiple countries – at one point, they believed he was hiding over the border, in a remote part of Colombia.

Instead, the notorious gang leader known as “Fito” was holed up in a luxurious marble-walled home authorities had already raided at least three times, along the Ecuadorian coast he had long controlled, enjoying a home gym and indoor pool.

Security forces knew they were close last month when they discovered, in a raid of the house, his 3-year-old daughter and the medications they knew he took for gastritis.

But as they teargassed the property, the Choneros leader was nowhere to be found.

They suspected a hidden bunker. They would have to dig beneath the house.

“Go in, with faith,” a supervisor told a police official leading the intelligence operation.

“Search however you can. Use all the means we have. But we have to find him.”

As security forces dug, Fito became fearful the bunker would cave in on him.

He emerged from a secret door in a laundry room floor and into the gunsight of a soldier.

The capture was a symbolic victory for President Daniel Noboa, the millennial business heir who won re-election this year on promises to contain the criminal violence that has turned this once-peaceful South American nation into a narco-trafficking battleground.

Noboa declared war on the gangs last year, days after Fito’s escape from a prison in Guayaquil.

As the leader of Los Choneros, United States prosecutors say, Fito teamed with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel to send shipments of cocaine to the US and beyond.

In an indictment that was unsealed in April, they described him as a “ruthless leader and prolific drug trafficker for a violent transnational criminal organisation” that smuggled military-grade machine guns, assault rifles and grenades in from the US and used hit men to kidnap, torture and murder.

Under Fito’s leadership, the organisation targeted police, politicians, prosecutors, and civilians, using threats, bribe payments, and corruption to build and protect a cocaine empire.

This account, which includes previously unreported details about Fito’s capture, is based on interviews with three top security and intelligence officials who helped oversee the operation, as well as documents, videos, photos, recordings, and a transcript of conversations with Fito himself. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Ecuador’s Defence Minister, speaking the day after Fito was taken into custody, said the arrest showed that Noboa’s Government does not negotiate with criminals. “There is no deal here and there never has been,” Defence Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said.

But three security officials involved in the operation said the Government did negotiate with Fito on a possible surrender.

An informant who acted as an intermediary for Fito contacted the US Drug Enforcement Administration in an attempt to help him negotiate his extradition to the US, in whose prison system he believed he would be safer, according to an Ecuadorian intelligence official. The official said the DEA later spoke directly with Fito.

The DEA and the Department of Justice declined to comment. Fito’s lawyers could not be reached for comment. But Fito, after his capture, told Ecuadorian authorities he had spoken with the agency.

“I was talking to the DEA and you know that, minister,” he told the Interior Minister after his capture, according to a transcript reviewed by the Washington Post. “I wanted to turn myself in to them and tell them some things.”

It appears Fito might get at least part of what he wanted. Officials here say they have advanced his transfer to US custody and are waiting for US officials to formalise the extradition in an Ecuadorian court.

But the negotiations for a surrender failed. When intelligence officials received a tip that Fito was in his family’s home, they made their move.

The hunt

From behind prison walls, Fito led a criminal organisation that at one point claimed 5000 members inside the prison system and 7000 beyond.

They controlled an infamous Guayaquil penitentiary, smuggling in drugs, phones, TVs and weapons at their leisure.

Fito even recorded a high-production music video from inside the prison, presenting himself as a sort of modern-day Pablo Escobar. “Es el jefe y patrón,” his men sang in the video – he’s the boss.

Los Choneros had helped turn Ecuador into a major cocaine transit point – and one of the most violent countries in the region.

After Noboa took office, he pledged to restore security without negotiating with the country’s criminal organisations. He announced plans to bring law and order to the prison system. “Just don’t tell Fito,” he said in a TV interview.

In early January 2024, the drug lord escaped. He had been tipped off to plans to relocate him, intelligence officials learned, and simply walked out the front door.

Within days, prison riots, car bombs and an attack on a live news broadcast brought Ecuador to the verge of collapse.

Noboa declared a state of internal armed conflict, named 22 criminal gangs as terrorist organisations and allowed authorities to mobilise the military against them.

For the next year and a half, authorities searched Ecuador for the drug lord, seizing his businesses and assets, raiding his properties, capturing his hit men and eventually arresting people in his inner circle, including his romantic partner.

Interior Minister John Reimberg described this as a psychological operation to cause Fito to lose control of his actions.

Authorities had searched the house near Manta at least three times, according to two security officials.

In an audio recording obtained by the Washington Post, a Fito ally told another insider authorities “would search everything and then leave … They didn’t even get a single pistol”.

An informant gave authorities video recordings of Fito working out in a home gym. The same person spoke with the DEA on Fito’s behalf, according to an intelligence official. Lawyers and other intermediaries for Fito contacted Noboa administration officials, according to three people familiar with the talks.

At one point, the Colombian Embassy in Ecuador received a letter from Fito seeking the country’s help.

In the letter, obtained by the Washington Post, Fito said he feared Ecuador would send him to CECOT, the maximum-security mega prison in El Salvador to which the Trump Administration has sent detained migrants.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed its ambassador received the letter on June 9 but said it could not verify its authenticity and it did not engage with the request.

In late June, an informant told authorities Fito was hiding in a bunker in the house near Manta and was well armed.

Authorities flew drones over the property and saw his tight security: thick walls of concrete and steel, double-armoured gates, CCTV cameras and men and dogs on guard.

They also saw children’s toys by the pool. That meant his daughter might be there – which meant Fito might be there.

The capture

A team of 300 military troops armed with rifles and other weapons deployed to Manta before dawn. At 5.30am, they used ladders to scale the exterior walls of the property. “Go up! “Go up!” an officer shouted in the dark as alarms blared.

They rushed into the home, darting past barking dogs, into bedrooms, past a billiard table and down a spiral staircase, shouting “get on the ground!” to all they encountered.

They detained six adults, including Fito’s nurse, two men who helped him around the house, a female cook and his daughter’s nanny. They found cologne and clothes belonging to him.

But they did not find Fito.

The authorities cut off Fito’s electricity. They used scanning equipment to search for underground structures, but found nothing. Ecuador’s interior minister sent a backhoe.

“Tear the house apart,” he told officials leading the operation, according to one official. But without knowing exactly where Fito was, they were worried about burying him alive.

Then one team member noticed there were seven air conditioning units outside the house but only six inside. They started digging.

The excavation caused the roof of Fito’s bunker to shake. Officials say he began to panic. He soon climbed a ladder to emerge through a door hidden in the floor of the house’s laundry room. He bumped into a soldier, pushed him aside, and kept walking.

Then he walked straight towards the head of the operation. The officer pointed a gun at his head, ordered him to raise his hands, threw him to the floor, and handcuffed him.

He was soon airlifted to a maximum-security prison in Guayaquil.

“Today, this narco terrorist is where he belongs, in La Roca,” Loffredo, the Defence Minister, told reporters. “Through a surgical operation, we managed to apprehend the most wanted criminal of all time in Ecuador.”

Police and Army intelligence units subsequently found a second bunker, holding 15 pistols, two revolvers, two rifles and 2000 rounds of ammunition, with 19 watches, dozens of rings and bracelets and $7600 in cash.

The capture is a political triumph for Noboa, Ecuadorian security analyst Fernando Carrión said, but any boost “will probably suffer from all of these things that remain unclear”.

News of the Government’s discussions with Fito have sparked controversy.

While in hiding, Fito was still leading Los Choneros through his second-in-command, a close relative, an intelligence official said.

It’s unclear how his capture will affect the organisation.

In an internal report, intelligence officials warned that his removal could spark violence among lieutenants competing to replace him. It also could inspire rival gangs to fight to take over drug-trafficking corridors or criminal alliances.

For now, Fito awaits extradition. He has told authorities it remains in his “best interest” to be sent to the US.

It appears he will get that. Officials here say they have advanced his transfer to US custody.

“I’m not the way they paint me out to be,” he said, according to a transcript, echoing the Robin Hood image portrayed by Escobar.

“I’ve tried to change the lives of many people, which I have done. In exchange for what? For nothing. For nothing.

“I feel good, despite all the mistakes I’ve made,” he said. “I feel good.”