Public Enemy No. 1 in Ecuador, leader of the country's largest criminal gang, has not been found for 24 hours in the prison of Guayaquil (South) where he was serving his sentence, and security forces are looking for him, the Ecuadorian Presidency announced .
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Security forces “are working hard to find this extremely dangerous person,” Communications Minister Roberto Izurieta responded on local television.
Prisoner Adolfo Macias alias “Fito” probably escaped “a few hours” before a control operation at the prison on Sunday, said Mr. Izurieta, who did not say clearly that the prisoner had escaped.
AFP
On Sunday, the police chief admitted to the press that he was “not found where he should have been,” a high-security cell in the prison in the port city of Guayaquil.
Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into Fito's “alleged escape.”
The leader of the “Choneros” gang, a gang that has become the main player in Ecuador's thriving drug trade, has been serving a 34-year prison sentence since 2011 for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
AFP
The presidential official regretted that “the level of infiltration” of criminal groups within the state is “very high” and called Ecuador’s penal system a “failure.”
“The search (for “Fito”) continues (…) He is found, he must be found,” he said, calling the missing prisoner a “criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics, whose activities have characteristics of terrorism.”
On Monday, local media reported incidents at several prisons across the country that suggested prisoners may have taken guards hostage.
A large police force entered the small prison called El Inca north of the capital Quito, while soldiers guarded the outside area, an AFP photographer noted.
AFP
Images posted on social media showed guards being held down with knives by hooded men and implored the government to “proceed with caution” and “not send troops into the prisons.”
As of midday, the prison administration (SNAI) had not yet issued a statement.
Lawyer and music video
Fito's name has made headlines in recent months after one of the main candidates in the presidential election was assassinated in early August. The victim, a former journalist and parliamentarian, reported death threats from the leader of the Choneros shortly before his execution.
Fito, who is known to be very charismatic and has a large beard, studied law in prison until he qualified as a lawyer. He causes great terror among his fellow prisoners and has stood out because in recent months a Mexican group has published a song in his fame on social networks, along with a video clip and images filmed in his cell.
The man had been moved from prison several times as part of well-publicized operations that mobilized thousands of guards and armed soldiers.
AFP
Ecuador, a country that has become a logistics hub for shipping cocaine to the United States and Europe, is plagued by violence from gangs and drug traffickers.
The prisons are the scene of recurring massacres between rival gangs. Since February 2021, there have been at least a dozen massacres in which more than 460 prisoners died. The authorities have so far proven unable to regain control.
The new President Daniel Noboa was elected in autumn 2023 as the successor to the conservative Guillermo Lasso, with the promise to curb insecurity in the country and regain control of these prisons.
He had proposed building at least six new maximum-security prisons and leasing three ships to serve as offshore prisons during construction, separating the most dangerous inmates.