CNN –
With its four-piece bathroom, queen-size bed and mini-fridge, the cluttered prison cell of notorious Los Choneros gang leader José Adolfo Macías could have been in a hotel instead of one of Ecuador's largest prison complexes.
Ecuadorian Armed Forces/AFP/Getty Images
Image released by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces showing Adolfo Macias, aka Fito, leader of the criminal gang Los Choneros, as he is transferred to The Rock high-security complex on August 12, 2023.
This is “better than home…” [he] lives like a king,” a soldier exclaims in the second of several videos showing Macías’ room and his personal lawn yard, filled with a half-dozen of his fighting pet roosters. The videos shared with CNN were taken last year at La Regional prison and filmed by military personnel.
In another video filmed in Macías' prison cell, a colorful mural depicting the gang leader, better known as “Fito,” warns against “silver or lead.” The phrase, popularized by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, represents the grim choice of accepting bribes or being shot – a possible warning for prison staff.
The clips provide further evidence of the stark reality that Ecuador's prison system has become the headquarters of criminal groups that have amassed foot soldiers and influence across the country, experts say. In less than a decade, organized crime has turned the relatively peaceful country into one of the most dangerous places in Latin America.
Prison massacres have become increasingly common in recent years, leaving hundreds of people dead and some of them found dismembered. During the recent unrest, more than 130 prison guards and administrative staff were kidnapped in several prisons. They have since been released.
“The criminal groups are in full control [of the prisons] – That's why Fito had all these advantages in prison: television, internet, food, alcohol, women – everything he wants,” Jean Paul Pinto, an Ecuadorian security expert who has previously advised the Ecuadorian police and intelligence service, told CNN.
Experts speculate that these freedoms the drug lord enjoyed while incarcerated were also the reason he was able to escape from La Regional prison – a prison break that captured the world's attention and caused a storm last month sparked violence across the country.
It was about a decade ago when Ecuador began to lose control of its prisons, experts say. Glaeldys González, an organized crime expert at the International Crisis Group, said a series of oversights by successive Ecuadorian leaders had allowed crime to spread throughout the prison system. Those failures included mass prison transfers aimed at dismantling criminal groups – a move that backfired and only helped gangs expand their presence across the country, she added.
Massive incarceration measures helped gangs recruit new members behind bars, while the demobilization of Colombia's powerful FARC guerrilla force in 2017 allowed Ecuadorian gangs to fill the gap in trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Ecuador's ports, analysts say.
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With an estimated 30,000 gang members nationwide, many incarcerated criminals have been able to use their influence outside prison walls to control their prison guards. “Intimidation was used [by gang members to make prison staff carry out] “These are illegal activities demanded by the criminals who would threaten to harm family and loved ones if they did not do it,” said Julio Cesar Ballesteros, the former deputy general director of SNAI and deputy minister for social rehabilitation under the Former President Lenín was Moreno.
Ballesteros told CNN that corruption was bound to occur because prison guards were underpaid, overworked and faced terrible conditions, with overcrowding meaning that “there were not enough guards for the number of prisoners.”
Chronic overcrowding in Ecuador's prisons has fueled violence. Inmates have previously told CNN that people were forced to sleep in corridors without mattresses, and according to SNAI, prisons were over capacity by 3,250 to 4,150 people last year.
Ballesteros added that organized criminal groups “controlled absolutely everything” in the prisons. “Prisons are no longer run by the state, but criminals have taken power from within…Many prison officials, even top officials, were subjugated either through blackmail or threats, so they looked the other way and allowed the illegal activities to take place.”
In one case, an investigation last year by Ecuadorian Attorney General Diana Salazar revealed a prominent incarcerated drug trafficker's plan to pay prison staff up to $3,000 in exchange for bringing pigs to a “prisoner's day” party.
Messages shared by Salazar's office show the trafficker bragging in messages to acquaintances outside the prison, “It's like I'm the warden here.”
It's part of a pattern across the region, experts say. “Latin America's prison system has long been a breeding ground, training center and headquarters for some of America's most powerful crime syndicates,” Jeremy McDermott, co-founder of the think tank InSight Crime, told CNN. “And so it’s no surprise that this is also the case in Ecuador.”
Drug ballads and cockfights
Macías is one of Ecuador's most notorious gangsters and the only founding member of Los Choneros believed to still be alive. According to think tank Insight Crime, he was convicted in 2011 “of a range of crimes, including murder and drug trafficking,” but was released from prison in February 2013 before being recaptured months later.
Little is known about his life before the crime, but the 44-year-old gained a reputation as the gang's money laundering expert during his more than decade in prison. Los Choneros and their main rival Los Lobos are believed to be allied with Mexican drug cartels fighting for dominance of Ecuador's drug trade. Los Lobos saw a shakeup amid a violent power struggle in Los Choneros when Macías became its leader in 2020, experts said.
The infighting between Los Choneros and Los Lobos this year coincided with an explosion in violence in prisons and a rising murder rate in Ecuador – making Macías a household name in Ecuador.
In 2021, more than 300 people died in prisons, some of them beheaded in horrific massacres in which inmates were armed with automatic weapons and even grenades. The bloodshed and rivalries continue to this day, González said.
Beyond prison walls, the country's economic uncertainty has driven many Ecuadorians have committed crimes or forced others to flee the country.
The La Regional prison, where Macías was held before his latest escape, is one of five facilities that make up a large prison complex in Guayaquil – a port city and popular transit route for cocaine from the country that has seen some of the bloodiest violence between Rivals came from gangs.
In a music video shared online last year, the Los Choneros leader can be seen apparently petting a rooster in the Guayaquil prison complex. Macías' daughter Michelle can also be heard in the drug ballad sung by Mariachi Bravo. CNN contacted SNAI and asked how Mariachi Bravo was able to film the infamous inmate.
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Allegations of corruption began circulating about Macías' luxurious living situation in prison, particularly about why he was able to be housed in a medium-security prison instead of a maximum-security prison.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced U.S. sanctions against Los Choneros and Macías this month, saying the gang leader “enjoyed access to cell phones and the Internet, which allowed him to continue to direct Los Choneros' activities and publish external communications.”
A military source told CNN that Macías enjoyed cockfighting in prison and that his room had been enlarged to the size of two prison cells. The drug lord also managed to get a number of women to visit him while he was incarcerated, the source said.
It was no secret that Macías lived in relative luxury compared to the average prisoner. He celebrated his 42nd birthday with great fanfare, as CNN affiliate Ecuavisa reported, which showed footage of fireworks in his prison and loud music coming from the grounds. A picture from the event showed the Kingpin posing in front of what looked like a birthday cake.
In December, newly inaugurated Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa joked in an interview with state media that Macías' cell had more electrical outlets “than a room at the Marriott.”.Asked what his government plans to do to combat the lawless prisons, Noboa replied: “There is a nice plan, don't tell Fito, don't tell Fito yet.”
The government had planned to transfer Macías to a maximum security prison. However, it is believed that Macías was tipped off in advance, leading to his escape in January. Around the same time, his wife and children traveled to the Argentine city of Córdoba, where they moved into a recently purchased home, according to Argentine authorities.
“Our theory is that there were previous plans to buy the house and get the family out [of Ecuador]“And once the family is out, escape from prison,” said Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich. According to Argentine authorities, the family was deported two weeks after their arrival.
It remains unclear how and when Macías escaped. But the Ecuadorian president's press secretary believes that the Los Choneros leader has been informed of an impending transfer to prison.
“Yes, there was a leak, most likely there was a leak,” Roberto Izurieta told Ecuadorian broadcaster Teleamazonas.
CNN has reached out to the country's prison agency, SNAI, for comment.
Following news of Macías' prison break, violence erupted in Ecuador and President Noboa declared a state of emergency on January 8th. Police and prison staff were taken hostage, explosions occurred in several cities, a television studio was raided by gunmen, a prosecutor investigating gangs was arrested and murdered, and the alleged leader of the rival Los Lobos gang, Fabricio Colón Pico, escaped prison with dozens of other inmates.
Noboa also declared war on gangs, which he described as “narco-terrorist groups” that enjoy the support of foreign cartels. The ongoing crackdown, which has seen the military deployed to support Ecuador's overwhelmed police, has resulted in more than 5,000 arrests.
But experts question whether such militarization will work as a long-term solution for criminal gangs if the root causes of violence in Ecuador – including systemic corruption, weak state institutions and the constraints between some of the world's largest cocaine producers – have not changed.
Today, soldiers guard the outer walls of the Guayaquil prison complex from which Macías escaped. As part of the crackdown, Noboa has promised to build more prisons.