Ecuador has extradited one of its most infamous criminal figures, Adolfo Macias—better known as “Fito”—to the United States, just weeks after his dramatic re-arrest following a high-profile prison escape earlier this year.
The country’s prison authority, SNAI, confirmed on Sunday that Macias was transferred from a high-security facility in the southwest of the country under the extradition process.
The 44-year-old, who once worked as a taxi driver before becoming the powerful leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang, faces a raft of charges in the US, including cocaine trafficking, conspiracy, and arms offences.
The US Attorney’s Office filed an indictment in April, accusing Macias of overseeing a vast network of drug smuggling and firearms trafficking.
He agreed to his extradition during a court hearing in Quito last week.
Macias is the first Ecuadorian to be extradited under new legislation approved via a national referendum in 2023.
The measure was championed by President Daniel Noboa as part of a broader crackdown on Ecuador’s increasingly violent drug gangs.
Once seen as a relatively peaceful nation nestled between Colombia and Peru—two of the world’s leading cocaine producers—Ecuador has been plunged into a wave of violent crime fuelled by feuding drug gangs.
Following Macias’s escape from a maximum-security prison in January 2024, President Noboa declared a state of “internal armed conflict” and deployed military forces across the country.
His escape triggered widespread violence and a sweeping security operation. The government even offered a $1 million reward for information on his whereabouts.
Authorities eventually captured Macias on June 25 in the coastal city of Manta, the hub of Los Choneros’ operations. He was found hiding in a concealed underground bunker beneath the floor of a luxury property.
Noboa, speaking shortly after the arrest, insisted that Macias would be handed over to US authorities without delay.
“The sooner the better,” he told CNN at the time. “We’ll gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law.”
Los Choneros is believed to maintain links with several international criminal organisations, including Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan, and groups from the Balkans, according to Ecuador’s Organised Crime Observatory.
Ecuador has become a critical transit point for global cocaine trafficking, with more than 70 per cent of the world’s cocaine now believed to move through its ports.
In 2024 alone, Ecuadorian authorities seized a record 294 tonnes of illegal drugs, most of it cocaine.
Despite efforts to contain the surge in organised crime, critics—including human rights groups—have questioned the government’s militarised response, warning of potential abuses and long-term instability.
The extradition of Macias marks a pivotal moment in Noboa’s war on organised crime, but many warn that removing one kingpin will not be enough to stem the growing tide of violence gripping the nation.
