{"id":29533,"date":"2025-06-26T06:33:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=29533"},"modified":"2025-06-26T06:33:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:33:57","slug":"ecuadors-most-wanted-fugitive-fito-found-hiding-under-kitchen-counter-after-a-year-on-the-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/06\/26\/ecuadors-most-wanted-fugitive-fito-found-hiding-under-kitchen-counter-after-a-year-on-the-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive Fito found hiding under kitchen counter after a year on the run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive has been recaptured – more than a year after he escaped from a maximum-security prison.<\/p>\n

Jose Adolfo Macias, also known as “Fito”, led a gang called Los Choneros and was discovered in his hometown of Manta following a 10-hour operation.<\/p>\n

Footage from the\u00a0Ecuadorian<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0army showed a uniformed officer aiming a gun at the drug trafficker’s head after finding him hiding in a small hole beneath a kitchen counter.<\/p>\n

“Fito” has an extensive criminal record including charges of murder and organised crime, and he was sentenced to 34 years behind bars in 2011.<\/p>\n

Officials are yet to explain how he escaped – and only realised he was missing when the military arrived to transfer him to another prison and found his cell empty.<\/p>\n

A 60-day state of emergency was declared,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0with hooded gunmen\u00a0bursting onto the set of a live television studio<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and declaring they had bombs.<\/p>\n

Interpol quickly issued an arrest warrant for Macias, who is due to face international drug and gun charges at a court in New York.<\/p>\n

He has been accused of distributing cocaine around the world, and smuggling firearms and ammunition from the US into Ecuador with the help of Mexican cartels.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"The<\/div>
‘Fito’ in 2023. (Image: Ecuadorian Armed Forces)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa confirmed the country has already requested his extradition to the US – and vowed that more notorious gang members “will fall”.<\/p>\n

“Fito” had cult status among the public and was known for throwing parties in prison, where he had access to alcohol and roosters for cockfighting matches.<\/p>\n

In 2023, he released a video addressed to the Ecuadorian people while behind bars – and was flanked by armed men.<\/p>\n

The US classified Los Choneros as one of the world’s most violent gangs last year, while Ecuador has described it as a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n

His capture comes weeks after the government announced that the reward for his capture was going to be increased to $1m (\u00a3729,000).<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0\"Sky<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive has been recaptured – more than a year after he escaped from a maximum-security prison. Jose Adolfo Macias, also known as “Fito”, led a gang called Los Choneros and was discovered in […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[2689,2707,1343,3214,10036,10038,1154,521],"class_list":{"0":"post-29533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-ecuador","10":"tag-extradition","11":"tag-fugitive","12":"tag-gangs","13":"tag-los-choneros-gang","14":"tag-manta","15":"tag-most-wanted","16":"tag-new-york","17":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29535,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29533\/revisions\/29535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}