José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, and head of the Los Choneros criminal gang, is causing headaches for the Ecuadorian and now also the Colombian government. According to intelligence information from the Colombian Armed Forces published by the newspaper El Tiempo, one of the neighboring country's most dangerous criminals, who escaped from a prison in Guayaquil a week ago, may be hiding in Colombia or have plans to do so soon. Faced with these suspicions, the National Army carried out this Friday a special operation in a 586-kilometer binational zone, in which 180 soldiers will initially be present to determine whether the boss has crossed the border.
The theory that the feared mafia is on national territory is supported, among other things, by the links of Los Choneros with illegal Colombian groups operating in the south of the country, as is the case with several powerful dissident fronts of the Second Marquetalia, such as Carolina Ramírez, which operates mainly in the department of Putumayo, and Oliver Sinisterra (FOS), which has its power in Nariño and some Ecuadorian provinces such as Esmeraldas. Thanks to the control they exercise in strategic areas along drug trafficking routes, such structures have become important allies of the mafia commanded by Fito, so much so that they are believed to have helped him to circumvent the operations and penetrate the country.
These alliances were joined by other events, such as the capture of Jorge Luis Zambrano in Bogotá in 2013. Zambrano served as the supreme leader of Los Choneros at the time. A decade later, in May last year, Junior Alexander Roldán, leader of Los Águilas, a key faction within the gang commanded by Fito, was assassinated in Antioquia. His body was found with a gunshot wound to the head in a rural area of Fredonia Parish. The Colombian military is also keeping an eye on this department because there are many gangs there that are dedicated to drug trafficking.
Warning in other countries
Versions of where the powerful fugitive could be remain unclear. Although the first indications suggest that Fito is in Colombia, other versions suggest that he may have fled to Peru due to the territorial proximity to the port of Guayaquil. However, that country's Interior Minister, Víctor Torres Falcón, made it clear that the gangster would not be there. “Intentions are not important because the work of the police is clear and precise; and we checked the person who is in the northern country. (…) It is impossible for him to be in Peru,” he told a local newspaper.
Nevertheless, Dina Boluarte's government launched a military operation in Tumbes, on the border with Ecuador, where it wants to increase security with the presence of at least 300 police officers. Despite the security crisis in the region, the Peruvian authorities announced that they do not plan to close the border, but rather to strengthen filters in the exit and entry processes to their territory.
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