AT the break of dawn last Saturday, around 4,000 troops and soldiers took part in an operation to transfer Jose Adolfo Macias, alias ‘Fito’, to a Maximum Security Prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Macias is the ringleader of the criminal gang ‘Los Choneros’, known for carrying out extortions, murders, contract killings, drug trafficking, and other crimes.
In footage released by Ecuador’s police, the prisoner is seen with a long beard and topless, heavily guarded in the operation which lasted 8 hours all in all.
To note, Macias had been moved to La Roca, a 150-person maximum security prison that is still part of the same large penitentiary complex he was already in since 2011.
Reports say that Macias had controlled at least one cellblock in the said prison where he was transferred from, and according to a statement from the Ecuadorian government, 3,400 grams of marijuana, 937 grams of cocaine, 147 bullets, 195 fireworks, and other unauthorized items such as refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, speakers, sound equipment, and cellphones were seized during the operation.
Macias was also alleged to have made death threats to presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was known for being vocal against corruption and drugs, before being assassinated Wednesday last week as he was leaving a campaign rally.
Before his murder, Villavicencio said that he had been threatened by Fito.
“If I continue… Mentioning Los Choneros [the gang], they are going to break me,” Fernando Villavicencio, Slain Ecuadorian presidential candidate said.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, the political party of Villavicencio Picked Andrea Gonzales to replace the slain presidential candidate just days ahead of the election that is set to take place on the 20th of August.
As of now, authorities have not yet announced any confirmed links between Macias or his gangs to Villavicencio’s assassination, however, investigations are still ongoing.
