Ecuador ordered on Saturday the transfer to a maximum security prison of the leader of one of the main organized crime groups, The Choneros, and designated by the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio of threatening him before he was finally killed.
President Guillermo Lasso made the announcement on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, hours after the incursion operation of some 4,000 military and police personnel was reported in the Regional jail, one of the prisons located in the port city of Guayaquil where was confined Jose Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito” and considered the head of Los Choneros, an organized crime group identified by authorities as having ties to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
The president indicated that Fito was transferred to the prison of La Roca, also in Guayaquil, “for the safety of citizens and detainees. Ecuador is going to recover peace and security. If violent reactions are generated, we will act with all force.” La Roca was closed for a while after a massive escape and then it was reopened in 2022. Two other highly dangerous leaders of the Las Águilas gang were also transferred to other cells in that prison, the Communications Secretariat of the Presidency reported.
The authorities of the penitentiary system previously reported in a statement that the operation sought locate weapons, ammunition and explosives in that prison, without mentioning if the inspection had to do with the investigation of the Villavicencio crime. The National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) released images of the raid and showed several prisoners, although it highlighted images of Fito.
Villavicencio, shot dead Wednesday while leaving a political rally, He had said days before that Fito threatened him and his campaign team.