Ecuador's “most wanted prisoner”, leader of the Los Choneros criminal group, disappeared from the prison where he was being held, authorities said this Sunday (7). An operation was launched to locate him.
General Cesar Zapata, national police commander, said at a press conference that the country's armed forces had determined that one of the inmates at the Guayaquil prison was missing.
Although Zapata did not mention the prisoner's name, the prosecutor's office said it would investigate “the alleged escape” of José Adolfo Macias, leader of Los Choneros.
Macias, whose pseudonym is “Fito”, was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes, including drug trafficking and murder.
Los Choneros is a criminal organization that authorities have linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes, and accused of controlling the country's main prisons.
“We are grateful for the courage and commitment of the police forces, who, in an operation that involved more than 3,000 people, intervened in the prison in search of the most wanted prisoner,” presidential spokesman Roberto Izurieta told the press.
Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuador's overcrowded prisons and official figures show that more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; writing by Stefanie Eschenbacher; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Source: CNN Brasil
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