Los Choneros leader Fito denies charges in US narcotics case. Photo / Getty Images
Los Choneros leader Fito denies charges in US narcotics case. Photo / Getty Images
Notorious Ecuadoran drug trafficker Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, has pleaded not guilty to narcotics charges in a US court, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum security penitentiary.
The leader of the Los Choneros gang denied seven charges, including drug trafficking and arms trafficking,punishable by 20 years to life imprisonment.
“As alleged, the defendant served for years as the principal leader of Los Choneros, a notoriously violent transnational criminal organisation, and was a ruthless and infamous drug and firearms trafficker,” US attorney Joseph Nocella said.
“The defendant and his co-conspirators flooded the United States and other countries with drugs and used extreme measures of violence in their quest for power and control.”
The US Attorney’s Office filed charges in April against Macias on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the defendant “will soon face justice in the US for leading a vicious transnational criminal organisation”.
The former taxi driver turned crime boss agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the US to face the charges.
Macias managed to escape from the Guayaquil regional prison to avoid his transfer to a maximum security section of the facility. Photo / Getty Images
Gang warfare
Macias is the first Ecuadorian extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought approval to intensify his war on criminal gangs.
Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world’s two top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as enemy gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.
Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralise” the gangs.
The move was criticised by human rights organisations.
Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan – the world’s largest cocaine exporter – and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organised Crime Observatory.
Macias’ escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a massive military and police recapture operation, including Government “wanted” posters offering US$1 million for information leading to his arrest.
On June 25, Macias was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the centre of operations for Los Choneros. Noboa declared he would be extradited, “the sooner the better”.
The bunker where the military found Macias. Photo / Getty Images
“We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law,” Noboa told CNN at the time.
More than 70% of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador’s ports, according to US government data.
In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine.
