Ecuador’s most notorious gang leader, Adolfo Macías Villamar, known widely as “Fito,” has been extradited to the United States to face charges of international drug and arms trafficking, following his dramatic recapture last month.
The extradition marks a significant development in Ecuador’s intensifying war on organized crime, which has plagued the nation in recent years. Macías, who led the powerful Los Choneros gang, had been serving a 34-year sentence for a series of crimes before escaping from a high-security prison in early 2024. His escape triggered a nationwide manhunt and intensified security operations.
In June 2025, Ecuadorian authorities tracked him down to a concealed underground bunker beneath a luxury home in the coastal city of Manta. His arrest was seen as a major victory for President Daniel Noboa, who praised security forces and confirmed plans to extradite the gang leader to the U.S.
“This is a turning point in our fight against narco-terrorism,” President Noboa declared following the arrest.
Macías is accused of orchestrating massive drug trafficking operations in collaboration with Mexican and Balkan criminal networks, using Ecuador’s strategic location between Colombia and Peru—the world’s top cocaine producers—as a transit hub. Currently, over 70% of the world’s cocaine reportedly flows through Ecuador’s ports.
Fito is also suspected of ordering the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a bold move that shocked the country and drew global attention to Ecuador’s spiraling security crisis.
On Monday, Macías is scheduled to appear before a federal court in Brooklyn, where he is expected to plead not guilty to charges related to international narcotics and weapons trafficking, according to his attorney Alexei Schacht.
“Mr. Macías and I will appear tomorrow before the Brooklyn federal court… where he will plead not guilty,” Schacht told Reuters. “After, he will be held in a to-be-determined prison.”
His extradition comes just months after Ecuadorians voted in favor of allowing extradition of citizens in a national referendum called by President Noboa. The president has made the fight against organized crime a cornerstone of his administration, even calling on the U.S., European, and Brazilian militaries to assist in what he has labeled a full-scale war on gangs.
Los Choneros, under Macías’s leadership, are widely blamed for Ecuador’s descent from a peaceful tourist destination into one of Latin America’s deadliest countries, with soaring murder rates and rampant violence in recent years.
Fito’s appearance in U.S. federal court will be closely watched both in Ecuador and internationally, as the battle against transnational organized crime continues to escalate.
