(CNN Spanish) — Fabricio Colon Pico, aka “Captain Pico” and the alleged leader of the Los Lobos gang, escaped from Riobamba prison, the city’s mayor, John Vinueza, told CNN this Tuesday.
Days earlier, the man was publicly identified by the Ecuadorian prosecutor, Diana Salazar, as suspected of participating in the alleged plot to attack her life and her family. Colon Pico was arrested in Quito during an operation on Friday.
Vinueza indicated that 38 other prisoners escaped with Colón Pico, 12 of whom have been recaptured.
CNN has not yet received a response to Colon Pico’s legal representation.
Regarding the escape of Colón Pico and Adolfo Macias, aka “Fito” and the leader of the Los Choneros gang –– who escaped from a prison in Guayaquil, the Secretary of Communications, Roberto Izurita, said in an interview with the local this Tuesday. Digital Media, who escaped from two Ecuadorian prisons because they no longer believed them safe for crime.
“With all the strength of the state and the political determination of the country, I am sure that these two fugitives will be found. “Those two fugitives are fleeing because the safe place they had was no longer safe,” Izurita said.
He added that the prison system cannot continue to be a breeding ground for organized crime.
Colon Pico’s escape came amid prison tensions and other acts of violence in the country, amid a state of emergency declared by President Daniel Noboa this Monday due to “serious internal unrest”.
Colón Pico was arrested in Quito on Friday, January 5 and received a preventive detention order that he is serving in Riobamba city prison for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping crime, which was confirmed by the prosecutor’s office.
According to the police, the man faces around 21 charges for various offences, including: organized crime, illegal association, unauthorized possession of firearms, robbery, qualified robbery, financing for the manufacture and trafficking of scheduled substances subject to organization or control, intimidation . and arms trafficking.
