Who are Los Choneros, the criminal gang aka “Fito”?

(CNN Spanish) — Ecuadorian authorities are searching for Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, who escaped from a prison in Guayaquil that triggered a series of violent incidents—among other factors—that rocked the country and the government’s response to the state of emergency and conflict. Internal assembly.

More than 3,000 police and members of the armed forces were deployed to search for him, the government said on Sunday. Ecuadorian authorities said they could not yet determine the exact time and date Macias escaped from prison. It was reported that he escaped on Sunday.

Mesias is the alleged leader of Los Choneros, one of Ecuador’s deadliest gangs, involved in maritime narcotics trafficking in Mexico and the United States, working with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and the Oliver Sinistera Front in Colombia. Crime Investigation Center Insight Crime.

Fito was imprisoned after pleading guilty to drug trafficking. Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio reported in July 2023 that he had been threatened by Macias and warned the leadership that he would not continue his campaign against gang violence. Villavicencio was shot dead on August 9, 2023 after a campaign rally in Quito.

The escape of the criminal Adolfo “Fito” Mesias, as well as several confrontations in various prisons, led President Daniel Noboa – who took office less than three months ago – to declare a state of emergency.

The Ecuadorian government has offered a reward for anyone who provides information leading to Fito’s capture.

Who are Los Choneros?

According to Insight Crime, a research center on organized crime on the continent, the Los Choneros gang, which emerged in the late 1990s in the coastal city of Manabi province, has become the largest in Ecuador. American.

The gang is linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Colombia’s Oliver Sinistera Front (FOS), and both organizations together are dedicated to maritime narcotics trafficking in Mexico and the United States, but also micro-drug trafficking, smuggling, extortion, and contract killings in several cities in Ecuador. and with presence in prisons.

According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCRP), a network of investigative journalists, Los Choneros primarily used the Pacific illegal drug route, which passes through Ecuador and concentrates 74% of the cocaine that reaches North America.

But it has been since 2011, when several of their leaders were imprisoned, that Los Choneros has evolved and become a gang with a strong presence in Ecuador’s prison system, according to Insight Crime.

In recent years, Los Choneros have been under attack in the country’s prisons and on the streets in a war against their main rivals, Los Lobos and other smaller gangs.

Fito escaped from prison once in 2013, and was recaptured by authorities.

An internal armed conflict of which Los Chonero is a part

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, this Tuesday decreed the existence of an “internal armed conflict” in the country after an increase in violence in the region.

Officials said in a press conference that this Tuesday, the country experienced a violent day in which at least 8 people were killed. An armed group temporarily occupied a television channel in that city and other acts of violence took place in various places. At least 13 people were arrested for the incidents at TC Ecuador, according to authorities.

In the text of the decree, the government qualifies 22 organizations as “terrorist and combatant non-state actors”. On this list are Águilas, ÁguilasKiller, AK47, Caballeros Oscuros, ChoneKiller, Covicheros, Cuartel de las Feas, Cubanos, Fatales, Gánster, Kater Piler, Lagartos, Latin Kings, Lobos, Los p.27, Los Choneros. , Mafia 18, Mafia Treball, Patrons, R7 and Tigurons.

“I have ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize these groups,” Noboa said. In the message of X which accompanied the decree.

In addition to the reward offered by Fito, authorities are offering a reward for information leading to the whereabouts of alleged Los Lobos gang leader Fabricio Colón Pico, aka Captain Pico.

With information from German Pedinger, Stefano Pozebon, Ana Maria Canizares, German Pedinger and Carol Suarez