Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency on Monday following the escape of notorious drug criminal ‘Fito’. According to the Spanish newspaper ‘El País’, Fito had already been in prison for twelve years.
According to the newspaper, this is not the first time he has escaped. Fito is considered one of Ecuador’s most dangerous drug criminals, according to El País. He is suspected of being involved in the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio last August.
Fito, whose real name is José Adolfo Macías Villamar, was missing for 15 hours in prison in the port city of Guayaquil in southern Ecuador. Afterwards, the Ecuadorian authorities had to acknowledge that he had escaped. He is the leader of the Los Choneros gang, the Ecuadorian branch of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. After Fito’s escape, unrest broke out in several prisons. According to the president, the riots are the result of a government decision to take control of the prison system. Until recently, criminals had free rein there, according to Noboa.
“I have just declared a national state of emergency so that the armed forces receive full political and legal support in their actions,” President Noboa said on Instagram. “The time when narcos, hitmen and organized crime imposed the law on the government is over,” Noboa said.
In his video message, he calls on the people to support the security forces – who are given more powers thanks to the state of emergency. “Current laws are insufficient to live in peace,” the president assures. “We will not negotiate with terrorists,” Noboa says firmly in his message.
34 years in prison
Fito, 44, has been prosecuted and convicted in fourteen trials for various crimes, including theft, organized crime, possession of weapons and murder, which together amount to 34 years in prison. He has now served twelve of those.
It’s not the first time he’s escaped. In February 2013, Fito and 15 other inmates of the Los Choneros gang, including the group’s then leader, Jorge Luis Zambrano, managed to escape from the La Roca maximum security prison, which is located in the same prison complex in Guayaquil. For ten months they were the most wanted criminals in the country, until they were found by the police.
Following Zambrano’s murder in December 2020, shortly after his release, Fito rose to become leader of Los Choneros.
LOOK. 4,000 heavily armed soldiers take gang leader ‘Fito’ to prison in Ecuador
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