Ecuador extradites notorious drug lord ‘Fito’ to the United States

José Adolfo Macías, better known as Fito, didn’t spend even a full month locked up in La Roca, the maximum-security prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Twenty-five days after being transferred there, a joint police and military operation went into his cell on Sunday, July 20, handcuffed him and put him on a U.S. Department of Justice plane. At 2:00 p.m., the flight took off for the United States with one of Ecuador’s most feared drug traffickers on board.

Fito, leader of Los Choneros—one of the country’s most powerful criminal organizations—faces seven counts of drug trafficking and gun smuggling in a Brooklyn federal court that could result in up to 50 years in prison. His extradition marks an unprecedented turn in Ecuadorian politics, as he is the first local drug kingpin to be handed over to U.S. justice.

The process was as swift as it was surprising. On June 25, Macías was recaptured in a bunker in a house a few meters from the coast of Manabí, a province that has become a sanctuary and battleground for drug traffickers. Just two weeks later, he signed his voluntary consent to be extradited, in an attempt to escape being assassinated by one of his many enemies. On Friday, July 18, the president of the National Court of Justice approved Fito’s extradition, after receiving guarantees from the United States that he would not be subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment, nor sentenced to the death penalty or life imprisonment, sentences not provided for in Ecuadorian law.

President Daniel Noboa had the final say. On his desk lay the decision that would mark a turning point in the fight against organized crime in Ecuador. Noboa’s government had a strong interest in extraditing the man who became the most visible face of drug-related impunity in the country. His escape in January 2024 from the Guayaquil Regional Prison not only exposed the cracks in the prison system but also unleashed a wave of brutal violence inside and outside prisons. The scenes of chaos forced the government to take the unprecedented step of declaring an internal armed conflict and handing over control of security to the Armed Forces.

On Monday, José Adolfo Macías will appear before the Eastern District Court of New York, the same one that sentenced Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the former leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and with ties to Ecuadorian drug trafficking.

Fito’s criminal organization, Los Choneros, is believed to be capable of shipping tons of cocaine to the United States, laundering money on a continental scale, and mobilizing arsenals with almost military-like logistics.

His trial is raising expectations in Ecuador over the potential revelations that could emerge from the Brooklyn courtroom. Fito is no ordinary criminal; he belongs to the old school that dates back to the 1990s, when the gangs still operated with almost artisanal codes. His testimony in a U.S. court could drag in powerful figures and reveal the invisible threads that have linked the State and the mafias for decades.

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