Ecuadorian police have reportedly launched a massive manhunt after a prisoner described by prosecutors as a “most wanted prisoner” disappeared from a high-security facility in Guayaquil.
According to Reuters, Jose Adolfo Macias, who goes by the alias “Fito” and is the leader of the criminal organization Los Choneros, was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking and murder.
Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was killed after a rally in the capital Quito in August last year, said that Los Choneros and Macias, who had ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, had linked up with him and his campaign just days before his assassination. He accused her of threatening him. .
According to Reuters, prosecutors said they would investigate Macias' “alleged escape” from a prison in Guayaquil.
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Ecuadorian soldiers arrive for an inspection at the Zone 8 prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Sunday, Jan. 7. (Reuters/Vicente Gaibor del Pino)
The news agency quoted Presidential Spokesman Roberto Izrieta as saying: “We would like to thank the law enforcement forces for their courage and dedication who intervened in the prison to search for the most wanted criminal in an operation involving more than 3,000 people. “I'm here,” he said. He said this at a press conference on Sunday.
Los Choneros has been involved in extortion, murder and drug trafficking crimes in Ecuador, and is also suspected of controlling some of the country's prisons, Reuters added.
Images taken Sunday at the Zone 8 prison showed Ecuadorian soldiers carrying rifles as they arrived to inspect the facility.
Macias was transferred to a high-security facility there three days after Villavicencio's assassination last year.
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Police officers stand guard outside the Zone 8 prison on Sunday. (Reuters/Vicente Gaibor del Pino)
Then-President Guillermo Lasso said the relocation of Mr. Matthias was “for the safety of the people and the detainees.”
Villavicencio received at least three death threats in the lead up to the shooting, his campaign manager said last August.
Patricio Zukilanda told The Associated Press at the time that threats against Villavicencio, who said in his last speech he would fight corruption and jail more criminals, were reported to authorities and one person was detained.
Inmates hold up a banner that reads “Fito is not a political raider” at the Zone 8 prison following the intra-institutional transfer of Jose Adolfo Macias in August 2023. (Vicente Gaibor del Pino)
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“Here I am showing my face. I am not afraid of them,” Villavicencio said in a statement before his death, naming Macias by his alias “Fito”.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
