QUITO: Ecuador on Monday declared a state of emergency after an extremely dangerous Narco boss escaped from maximum security custody.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa declared a country-wide state of emergency, including the prison system.
Noboa in a statement on his Instagram account said he has signed a decree for a state of emergency so that the armed forces have all the political and legal support in their actions against these drug dealers.
General Cesar Zapata, the national commander of police, in a press conference said that Ecuador’s armed forces had determined that one of the prisoners in the Guayaquil prison was missing.
Though he did not mention the inmate by name, the prosecutor’s office said it would probe the alleged escape of Jose Adolfo Macias, the leader of Los Choneros criminal group.
Macias, alias is Fito, was sentenced to 34 years in prison in 2011 for various crimes including drug trafficking and killings.
Fito’s second prison escape
This is his second prison escape, the last was in 2013 when he was arrested again after three months.
In a highly sensitive operation involving thousands of security forces, Fito was shifted to a maximum-security prison last August after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
Villavicencio, a week before his death said he had received threats from Fito.
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Los Choneros is a criminal organization involved in different crises such as extortion, murder and drug trafficking, and accused of controlling the country’s main jails.
Presidential spokesman Roberto Izurieta at the press conference praised the courage and commitment of the law enforcement forces, who, in an operation involving more than 3,000 people, have intervened in the jail to search most-wanted prisoner.
Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuador’s prisons and according to the official numbers more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.
