Ecuador’s most notorious drug lord has agreed to be extradited to the United States to face cocaine and weapons smuggling charges, a court in Quito said Friday.
Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito,” was captured in June after escaping from a maximum security prison last year in a jailbreak that sparked a severe wave of gang violence.
Macias, head of the “Los Choneros” gang, is wanted in the United States on multiple charges. A seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn charges Macías and an unidentified co-defendant with international cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, including smuggling firearms from the U.S.
The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of Ecuadoran law enforcement early last year after escaping from prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil.
He had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for involvement in organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
Last year, the U.S. classified Los Choneros as one of the most violent gangs and affirmed its connection to powerful Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the surrounding region.
Authorities in Ecuador have classified the gang as a terrorist organization. President Daniel Noboa’s government at the time released “wanted” posters and offered $1 million for information leading to Macias’s recapture.
Macías’ escape “triggered widespread riots, bombings, kidnappings, the assassination of a prominent prosecutor, and an armed attack on a TV network during a live broadcast,” the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Ecuador said last year.
The Ecuadorian government and drug mafias also declared war on each other, and Noboa gave orders to “neutralize” criminal gangs after gunmen stormed and opened fire in the TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces.
After months of pursuit, Macias was recaptured last month in a massive military and police operation in which no shots were fired.
He was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, and Noboa declared he would be extradited “the sooner the better.”
“More will fall, we will reclaim the country. No truce,” Noboa said in an X post at the time. “We have done our part to proceed with Fito’s extradition to the United States.”
“Fito” ruled notorious prison where he earned law degree
Macias, dressed in an orange prison uniform, took part in a court hearing Friday by video link from a high-security prison in Guayaquil.
In response to a judge’s question, he replied, “Yes, I accept (extradition).”
Given his consent, the court said in a statement “the pertinent procedure for the transfer process” will now follow, with Noboa having to sign the official handover papers.
This would make Macias the first Ecuadoran extradited by his country since the measure was written into law last year after a referendum in which Noboa sought the approval of measures to boost his war on criminal gangs.
Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world’s two top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as enemy gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.
Gang wars have largely played out inside the country’s prisons, where Macias wielded immense control.
He was the unofficial boss of his Guayaquil prison, where authorities found images glorifying the gangster, weapons and U.S. dollars.
Videos of parties he held in the prison showed the use of fireworks and a mariachi band. In one clip, he appeared waving, laughing and petting a fighting rooster.
Macias earned his law degree behind bars.
By the time he escaped, he was considered a suspect in the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.
Soon after Macias’s prison break, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralize” the gangs.
Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan — the world’s largest cocaine exporter — and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.
More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador’s ports, according to government data.
In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine.
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