Los Choneros Gang Leader "Fito" Transferred to Maximum Security Prison in Ecuador

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The Ecuadorian government carried out an operation consisting of 4,000 soldiers and policemen to transfer the head of "Los Choneros," Jose Adolfo Macías Villamar, "Fito" to a higher level, maximum security prison. He had been held at a lower-level prison since 2011 having been sentenced to 34 years in prison for organized crime, drug trafficking, and murder.

Several other inmates from "Fito's" cell block in the Guayaquil Zonal Deprivation Center Number 8, were all restrained as "Fito" was escorted and transferred to the La Roca prison, a maximum security prison, housing only 150 inmates, located in the same large prison complex.

With past threats having been made by Los Choneros and "Fito" to the now assassinated Presidential candidate Fernando Villiavicencio, his transfer was under heavily armed guard and the convoy consisted of armored military vehicles.

Fito celebrating his birthday inside the prison he was transferred out of.

Prisons have become the center of operations for drug trafficking in Ecuador. Since 2021, more than 430 inmates have died violently, dozens of them dismembered and cremated amid disputes between rival gangs. Several fights broke out after the transfer of leaders to other prisons.

Los Choneros released a video following the transfer in which it distances itself from the killing and instead blames the government of President Guillermo Lasso for the crime.

 Los Choneros Response

In the video released by the criminal group, the most powerful in Ecuador and a close ally of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, a hooded man surrounded by armed men tells President Lasso that the actions being carried out "only benefit the criminal group with the that you have agreed to."

Immediately, the spokesman points out that "his connection to the murder of Fernando Villavicencio is not a secret to anyone" and maintains that the transfer of "Fito" to another prison "is a smokescreen to try to divert attention from the crime he has committed his government."

"They transfer 'Fito', but they forget that in the country we are not the only criminal organization that has caused damage to the population, among them is the organization with which you have an agreement to grieve many Ecuadorian families," he adds.

And then he affirms: "We know that this transfer is part of the plot to attempt an attempt on the life of 'Fito', and we warn that at the first attempt or threat that compromises the life of our leader, the GDO (Organized Crime Group) Los Choneros will take immediate retaliation against government entities.”

The spokesman for the criminal group then refers to the six Colombians who have been captured by the Ecuadorian police for their alleged connection to the murder of Villavicencio and asks: "The Colombians apprehended, to which criminal group do they belong and with which politicians did they communicate?"

"The most viable solution is for you to stop looking for culprits for the criminal acts that you and your entire leadership commit" because "the Ecuadorian people want to know the truth, he wants to hear the truth,” the lieutenants of "Fito" told President Lasso.

Coordinated Prison Threats

The Prosecutor's office has not yet released what organized crime groups the 6 arrested men and dead suspect are linked to, only that they are. They could be connected to groups in Colombia or Ecuador, or both. Several drug trafficking gangs are linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, such as Los Chonores, and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), such as Los Tiguerones and Los Lobos in Ecuador.

In several videos, recorded in different prisons in Ecuador, and distributed on social networks Saturday afternoon, spokesmen for "Los Choneros", as well as "Los Chone Killers", and their archrivals "Los Tiguerones", read the same text verbatim that, according to intelligence sources, reached the gang leaders in all the country's prisons via WhatsApp.

The videos all feature dozens of inmates in a prison yard with one of them reading a statement warning that if anything happens to “Fito,” whom they call “Commander”, “thousands of people will die.”

“Mr. Lasso –say the spokesmen- you took 'Fito' out of his cell alive and we hope you keep him alive for the well-being of all Ecuadorians. Otherwise, thousands of people will die and the Ecuadorian population will continue to be stained with blood.”

In addition, they demand that "Fito" be returned to the Litoral Penitentiary. “We want him to return it to where he was. You are responsible for what can happen to 'Fito'. We request the immediate transfer of 'Fito', since a plot is being orchestrated to end his life, ”says the script.

The coordinated statement and release of the videos show the large-scale coordination between various prisons. According to reports, there are some 30,000 gang members throughout the country.

Cartel Gang Links

Villavicencio said several times over the last few weeks, in the context of the electoral campaign, that Ecuador "is subject to the power of criminal structures and drug traffickers led by the Sinaloa Cartel and by Jalisco Nueva Generación." Ecuadorians seem to take it for granted that talking about the Sinaloa Cartel is talking about “Los Choneros” and their allies “Las Águilas” and “Los Fatales”; and that speaking of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) is to speak of a group of five gangs (“Los Tiguerones”, “Los Lobos”, “Los Lagartos”, “Los CH Killers” and “ALKQN”) that call themselves "New Generation Poster".

Villavicencio even made direct references to Mexico. On August 2, in an interview with journalist Janeth Hinostroza, Villavicencio said: "If we don't attack the political mafia, we will never have a homeland, because what is going to happen? Mr. López Obrador, president of Mexico, gets off his motorized caravan, walks two blocks, and hugs the mother of 'Chapo' Guzmán. That is the model of narco politics that Ecuador is about to experience”.

In the trial against Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, held in a federal court in New York in 2019, a former associate of the Mexican drug lord, who ended up testifying against him, the Colombian Jorge Cifuentes Villa, revealed that the incursion of the Sinaloa Cartel in Ecuador dates back to 2008, when it itself opened a maritime route from the Ecuadorian coast to Mexico to transport tons of cocaine.

According to Colombian police intelligence sources, dozens of envoys from the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels have traveled to Ecuador in recent years to consolidate their relations with the gangs in that country and open new routes to Europe.

According to the sources, the Mexican cartels have expanded their influence in Ecuador in alliance with the Colombian gangs with which they have worked for several years and with which they finance the production and trafficking of cocaine.

Last February, for example, the Colombian police captured in the department of Nariño, on the border with Ecuador, the Ecuadorian drug lord Wilder Emilio Sánchez Farfán, the "Gato Farfán", whom the United States authorities considered the main link between "Los Choneros.”

High-Security Prison Plans

A few days before being assassinated, Villavicencio reiterated that one of his first actions as president, if he were to win the elections scheduled for next Sunday, August 20, would be to build a "high security" prison in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in the that “Fito”, other drug lords, murderers, and white-collar criminals would be isolated. "They are not going to have conjugal visits," he said.

These types of assertions must have echoed in the main prisons of Ecuador, where "Fito" and the heads of other rival gangs of "Los Choneros", such as "Los Tiguerones" and "Los Lobos", have built their bunkers by co-opting the prison authorities, who allow them the entry of weapons, furniture, electrical appliances and all kinds of comforts.

On July 25, for example, "Fito" broadcast a video from the Guayaquil prison, in which he appears seated at a large table, flanked by five armed lieutenants, who are standing, and in which he announces that for " moral obligation" will reach a peace agreement with other gangs, such as "Los Lobos" and "Los Tiguerones" to end "vaccinations (security charges), kidnappings and extortions and violent deaths".

In the end, he says that as a gesture of "good faith" he voluntarily surrenders his weapons, after which his men place three pistols and a rifle on the table. No authority has explained why "Fito" can record a promotional video from prison, have weapons there and live in a prison with all kinds of comforts and guarded by his men.

FBI Joins Investigation

The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, announced that the United States authorities accepted his request to collaborate in the investigation of the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

As reported by Lasso, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accepted the request made by the Ecuadorian president himself and sent a delegation. The FBI "has made contact with the national Police" and in the next few hours, a "tripartite" meeting will be held with the State Attorney General. Minister of the Interior Juan Zapata said.

The meeting will determine "the scope of collaboration and support" that the FBI will give in the investigation of the crime. Zapata announced that, if the Prosecutor's Office so defines it, the FBI could support the "exploitation" or extraction of information contained in various mobile phones seized during the first police actions after the shooting against the Presidential candidate.

According to Colombian police sources, who are also helping in the investigation, the cell phones of the detainees appear with numbers that belong to Ecuadorian politicians. The widow of the assassinated candidate said that on the cell phones of the captured Colombians, there are "more than three" calls to Ecuadorian politicians, "but we still don't know the names."

Former Quito Mayor Attacked & Daughter Kidnapped

The assassination of Villavivencio occurred in the city of Quito; on Saturday evening, a former Mayor of that city from 2019 to 2021, Jorge Yunda, was ambushed at the exit of a tunnel on the highway. As Jorge Yunda explained, the car was blocked by a van, and "five hooded men, all armed " came out of a third vehicle. That group of armed men kidnapped the daughter of the former mayor but abandoned her shortly after, she was not harmed.

"They intercepted me at the exit of the Guayasamín tunnel, a van crossed me, behind my car another vehicle with five hooded men all armed came out, it was against me, that's why they abandoned my daughter in the Cumbaya area, as a believer, God is great, I already recovered my daughter," he added.

“My daughter has just been kidnapped. Sons of bitches, whatever it is with me, not with my family, ” Jorge expressed in the first message on social networks.

Sources Proceso, Infobae. Infobae, Proceso, Proceso, Proceso, Proceso