Ecuador's biggest drug lord 'Fito' extradited to US

QUITO

(FILES) Drug trafficker Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, is guarded by Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg (R) and military personnel upon arrival at the air base in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on June 25, 2025, after his recapture in Manta, Manabi Province.

The Ecuadoran government on July 20 extradited notorious drug trafficker Adolfo Macias, alias "Fito," to the United States, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum security penitentiary, the country's prison authority said.

The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on July 20 night.

The U.S. Attorney's Office filed charges in April against Macias, the head of the "Los Choneros" gang, on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling.

A letter filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on July 20 said Macias was due to appear in a federal court "for an arraignment on the Superseding Indictment in this case."

The drug lord on July 20 was removed from custody at a maximum security prison in Ecuador's southwest "for the purposes that correspond to the extradition process," Ecuador's prison authority SNAI said in a statement to reporters.

Macias, a former taxi driver turned crime boss, agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the United States to face the charges.

He is the first Ecuadoran extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought the approval of moves to boost his war on criminal gangs.

Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024, 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.