QUITO, Ecuador (BN24) — Ecuador’s most infamous drug lord has agreed to be extradited to the United States to face charges of cocaine trafficking and weapons smuggling, a year after a spectacular jailbreak that plunged the country into a wave of deadly gang violence.
A court in Quito announced Friday that Adolfo Macias, known by his alias “Fito,” consented to U.S. extradition during a video hearing from a high-security prison in Guayaquil.
“Yes, I accept,” Macias replied when asked by a judge if he would agree to be transferred.
Macias, the longtime boss of the Los Choneros gang, had been serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder when he slipped out of prison in January 2024. His escape triggered riots, bombings, kidnappings, and an unprecedented armed attack on a television station during a live broadcast.
The U.S. unsealed a seven-count indictment against Macias in federal court in Brooklyn, charging him and an unnamed co-defendant with conspiracy to distribute cocaine internationally and smuggling firearms from the United States.
Authorities described Macias as the most powerful figure in Ecuador’s underworld, overseeing alliances with Mexican cartels and Colombian traffickers. The U.S. Embassy said his prison break “sparked a wave of terror,” including the assassination of a prominent prosecutor and threats of random executions of civilians and police.
After months on the run, Macias was recaptured in late June during a massive military and police operation in the port city of Manta. Officers found him hiding in a concealed bunker under the floor of a luxury home.
President Daniel Noboa, who has declared an “internal armed conflict” against Ecuador’s criminal organizations, called the arrest a turning point. “More will fall. We will reclaim the country. No truce,” he said on social media at the time, pledging to extradite Macias “the sooner the better.”
Friday’s court decision paves the way for Ecuador’s first extradition since the measure was approved last year in a national referendum that granted Noboa sweeping new powers to combat the gangs. The president must now sign the final handover papers before Macias is transferred.
Ecuador was once a relatively peaceful nation sandwiched between the world’s top cocaine producers—Colombia and Peru—but has become a battleground among rival gangs linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan, and Balkan mafias.
The violence has exploded inside the country’s prisons, where Macias wielded enormous influence. He effectively ruled his Guayaquil facility, where officials found murals celebrating his image, hidden stockpiles of weapons and cash, and videos showing lavish parties with fireworks, mariachi bands, and even fighting roosters.
While behind bars, Macias earned a law degree. But he remained under suspicion for crimes far beyond the prison walls, including alleged involvement in the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
According to Ecuador’s Organized Crime Observatory, more than 70% of all cocaine produced globally now passes through Ecuador’s ports. Authorities seized a record 294 tons of narcotics last year.
Macias’s extradition marks a rare victory for Ecuadorian authorities in their struggle to regain control over a country overwhelmed by powerful criminal networks.
