Who is the powerful Ecuadorian gang leader 'Fito'?
August 14, 2023

Who is the powerful Ecuadorian gang leader 'Fito'?
He was arrested this weekend for involvement in the assassination of a presidential candidate and taken to a high-security prison accompanied by nearly 4,000 military personnel. Who is 'Fito', the leader of the Ecuadorian criminal gang 'Los Choneros'.



By Joost van der Wegen

Bared
It is a photo of a bare-chested, muscular, overweight man with his arms behind his head, accompanied by heavily armed officers of the Ecuadorian National Police. The bearded man is taken back to the prison where he was until recently, nicknamed 'La Roca', the rock.

He is José Adolfo Macías Villamar, aka Fito, who is considered the most powerful criminal in Ecuador. Fito is the leader of 'Los Choneros', a criminal gang believed to be the armed arm of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel in the country.

punishment
Fito grew up in an Ecuadorian coastal town, which is considered a strategic location for the drug trade. He is serving a sentence of 34 years, of which he has served 12. He was released early in March this year. He was convicted of murder, robbery, illegal possession of weapons and membership of a criminal organization.

His 'Los Choneros' are known as 'hitmen'. They also carried out a bloody battle among themselves in the country's prisons in 2020 after the death of the previous leader. 300 detainees lost their lives. The gang then splintered.

Endangered
Fito is accused of threatening 59-year-old former journalist and politician Fernando Villavicencio with death. He was shot dead last Wednesday after an election rally.

In the weeks before the murder, Villavicencio stated several times that he had been threatened with his life by gang leader Fito, who had made this clear to him through an intermediary. He had to stop to keep talking about the gang. "If I continue… to keep mentioning Los Choneros, they'll destroy me."