Police catch drug lord - because his 3-year-old daughter betrays him

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• The police in Ecuador have arrested a feared drug lord.
• José Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as "Fito", was on the run for 17 months.
• He was tracked down because his young daughter accidentally gave away his hiding place.

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After his prison break more than a year ago, Ecuador's security forces arrested the most wanted drug lord in the South American country. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, leader of the powerful Los Choneros gang, was arrested by a special police and military unit, President Daniel Noboa announced on the X platform.

The criminal known as "Fito" was on the run after his breakout 17 months ago. According to the police, the 45-year-old was captured in the western coastal town of Manta, his birthplace, after a ten-hour operation. He was found in an underground bunker in a house, according to media reports. According to the newspaper "El Mercurio", his three-year-old daughter is said to have accidentally betrayed his hiding place.

Macías Villamar is now to be extradited to the USA, where he has been charged with drug and weapons offenses in New York. The US government congratulated Ecuador on the arrest. "The United States supports Ecuador in its efforts to combat transnational crime in order to promote regional security," the US embassy in the capital Quito wrote on X.

Important transit country for cocaine to Europe

"Fito" was sentenced to 34 years in prison in 2011. When the police wanted to transfer him from a prison in Guayaquil to another prison in January 2024, his escape was noticed. The circumstances are still unclear. At the time, criminal gangs fought fierce battles in several prisons in the country and took guards hostage. He is said to have managed to escape in this chaos. He had already escaped from prison for the first time in 2013.

Violence has increased dramatically in Ecuador in recent years. The choneros are fighting with other criminal groups for control of drug smuggling routes. Ecuador is considered an important transit country for cocaine from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, which is smuggled to the USA and Europe.