Ecuadorian security forces have recaptured Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, the country’s most wanted fugitive and notorious drug lord, ending a months-long manhunt that began after his dramatic prison escape earlier this year.
Macías, leader of the feared Los Choneros gang, was found hiding in an underground bunker beneath a luxury home in Manta, on Ecuador’s Pacific coast. The 10-hour joint operation by police and military personnel ended without gunfire. Authorities uncovered the bunker behind a disguised trapdoor in the stone floor of the three-storey home, leading to a concealed room equipped with air conditioning, a bed, and a refrigerator.
Fito had been serving a 34-year sentence for murder and drug trafficking when he escaped from La Regional prison in Guayaquil in January 2024, allegedly with help from two prison guards. His breakout triggered deadly prison riots, a nationwide state of emergency, and intensified scrutiny of Ecuador’s crumbling prison system and rising gang violence.
Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, has been blamed for turning Ecuador from a peaceful nation into one of the most violent in Latin America, forging ties with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and importing brutal tactics such as decapitations and public executions.
He is also suspected of ordering the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a crime that shocked the nation and drew international condemnation.
Authorities say Fito offered no resistance upon capture and was flown to Guayaquil under heavy guard, where he is now being held in La Roca, a maximum-security prison.