{"id":1852,"date":"2025-07-21T07:40:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T07:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/07\/21\/ecuadors-biggest-drug-lord-fito-extradited-to-us-to-plead-not-guilty\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T07:40:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T07:40:56","slug":"ecuadors-biggest-drug-lord-fito-extradited-to-us-to-plead-not-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/07\/21\/ecuadors-biggest-drug-lord-fito-extradited-to-us-to-plead-not-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador\u2019s biggest drug lord \u2018Fito\u2019 extradited to US, to plead \u2018not guilty\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adolfo Macias, who was recaptured in June after escaping from a prison last year, will appear in a New York state court on Monday.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ecuadorean gang leader Adolfo Macias Villamar, also known as \u201cFito\u201d, is set to appear in a federal court in the United States, where he will plead not guilty to international charges of drug and weapons trafficking, his lawyer says.<\/p>\n

The Ecuadorean government on Sunday extradited the notorious drug trafficker, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape<\/a> from a maximum-security penitentiary, the country\u2019s prison authority said.<\/p>\n

Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, was serving a 34-year sentence at a prison in Guayaquil for a slew of crimes, including drug trafficking, organised crime, and murder.<\/p>\n

The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on Sunday night, the report said. His lawyer told the Reuters news agency that Macias \u201cwill plead not guilty\u201d before the Brooklyn federal court on Monday.<\/p>\n

Details of the handover to the US government and the extradition were not specified. The US government has yet to issue an official statement following the extradition.<\/p>\n

The US Attorney\u2019s Office had filed charges in April against Macias on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling.<\/p>\n

The former taxi driver turned crime boss agreed in a Quito court<\/a> last week to be extradited to the US to face the charges.<\/p>\n

He is the first Ecuadorean 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.<\/p>\n

Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world\u2019s two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.<\/p>\n

Cult following<\/h2>\n

Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024<\/a>, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of \u201cinternal armed conflict\u201d and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to \u201cneutralise\u201d the gangs. The move has been criticised by human rights organisations.<\/p>\n

As a drug lord, Macias cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public.<\/p>\n

While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to \u201cthe Ecuadorian people\u201d while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches.<\/p>\n

Macias\u2019s Los Choneros has ties to Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia\u2019s Gulf Clan, which is considered the world\u2019s largest cocaine exporter, as well as Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organised Crime Observatory.<\/p>\n

His escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a massive military and police recapture operation, including government \u201cwanted\u201d posters offering $1m for information leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n

On June 25, Macias was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the centre of operations for Los Choneros. Noboa declared he would be extradited, \u201cthe sooner the better\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law,\u201d Noboa told CNN at the time.<\/p>\n

More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador\u2019s ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adolfo Macias, who was recaptured in June after escaping from a prison last year, will appear in a New York state court on Monday. Ecuadorean gang leader Adolfo Macias Villamar, also known as \u201cFito\u201d, is set to appear in a federal court in the United States, where he will plead not guilty to international charges … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}