Relatives and others close to Ecuadorian drug trafficker José Adolfo Fito Macías were arrested in Argentina on Thursday night. Authorities in the South American country have not yet provided any official information, but local media claim that the drug trafficker's wife and children are among those arrested. The relatives of the criminal, who has been on the run since the beginning of the month and is considered one of those responsible for the wave of violence in Ecuador, were arrested during an operation in the city of Córdoba, in central Argentina. according to the agency. Eph.
Those arrested had rented a house in a private neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba and paid in cash with dollars, according to the newspaper La Voz del Interior, which cites sources from the Córdoba police's criminal intelligence service, who are jointly responsible for the investigation Anti-drug police. National Security Minister Patricia Bullrich will hold a press conference in the next few hours to report on the operation, which began four days ago.
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, is 44 years old, has had 14 trials for various crimes such as robbery, organized crime, weapons possession and murder, for a total of 34 years in prison. The criminal had been imprisoned for twelve years when he escaped in early January. After his escape, the escalation of violence in the country intensified. Six prisons in the country were taken over by prisoners who kidnapped prison leaders and caused clashes inside the prisons, and the chaos later spread to the streets. The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, then declared a state of emergency for two months.
Macías is considered Ecuador's most dangerous criminal and is the leader of the Los Choneros gang, the operational arm of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. The drug trafficker was accused of ordering the August killing of Fernando Villavicencio, a presidential candidate known for investigating ties between gangs and politics. Now he is in the spotlight due to the wave of violence that Ecuador is suffering these days following the takeover of the public television station TC TV by a group of gang members and the murder of César Suárez, an important Ecuadorian prosecutor who investigated criminal groups.
This is not the first time that Macías has escaped. In February 2013, he and 15 other prisoners from the Los Choneros gang, including the group's then-leader, Jorge Luis Zambrano, escaped from the maximum security prison La Roca. For ten months they were the country's most wanted criminals until they were found by the police.
[Noticia en desarrollo. Pronto habrá una actualización]