However, he was in a maximum security cell in Guayaquil prison. Adolfo Macias, better known as “Fito,” escaped from prison in this port city in southern Ecuador on Sunday, hours before a check operation was carried out at the prison.
An escape that forced President Daniel Noboa to declare a state of emergency for the entire country, including the prison system, since this criminal was public enemy number 1 and leader of the largest criminal gang in the country, responsible for riots in prisons.
The army is thus authorized to operate for 60 days to maintain order in the country's streets and prisons, where a curfew has been imposed between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. “Fito” is considered an “extremely dangerous person” and was allegedly assisted by two officers “who were involved in the escape.”
Adolfo Macias had been imprisoned since 2011 and was serving the maximum sentence of 34 years in prison for theft, organized crime, weapons possession, drug trafficking and murder. The 44-year-old has been the leader of the “Choneros” since 2020, a gang that is believed to consist of around 8,000 men and is considered the main player in the drug trade in Ecuador. He is also the only surviving founding member of this gang, which was founded in the 1990s.
A first escape in 2013
“Fito” has a large beard and is considered very charismatic. He studied law in prison until he qualified as a lawyer.
This is not the man's first escape attempt, as he escaped from a high-security prison in 2013 with around fifteen other prisoners and members of his gang before being captured again after several months on the run.
Since becoming leader of the gang, Adolfo Macias has been accused of being the perpetrator of numerous deadly riots in Ecuadorian prisons. More than 460 prisoners have been murdered in separate clashes between rival gangs over control of prisons in recent months.
Last August, the leader of “Los Choneros” was accused of being responsible for the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, the centrist candidate in the Ecuadorian presidential election who was in second place in the polls and in the middle of the street a few days before the election Quito was killed. A few days earlier he had actually made death threats against this politician who had been investigating drug trafficking in his country.
A gigantic operation to transfer it
After this assassination attempt, 4,000 heavily armed soldiers and police went to Prison Number Eight in Guayaquil, where he was being held, to transfer the criminal to La Roca Penitentiary, a 150-person maximum security facility in the same complex in Guayaquil.
This madrugada was transferred to La Roca prison according to Decree 823 of alias Fito for the safety of citizens and prisoners. El Ecuador will regain peace and security.
In order to provoke violent reactions, we act with all force… pic.twitter.com/N2cwoEH2zp— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) August 12, 2023
Following the declaration of a state of emergency on Monday, police reported violence in the gang-controlled province of Esmeraldas (northwest). Individuals threw an explosive device near a police station and two vehicles were set on fire, causing no injuries. In Machala (southwest), three police officers were kidnapped, while in Quito a fourth police officer was kidnapped by three people aboard “a vehicle with tinted windows and no license plate,” police said.
Since “Fito’s” recent escape, heavily armed police and soldiers have entered several prisons in the country, particularly those where guards have been kidnapped.
Images posted on social media that could not be verified show prison guards being held down by hooded men with knives and imploring the government to “proceed with caution” and “not send troops into prisons.” The prison administration (SNAI) has initially announced that no one was injured in these “incidents”.