The leader of one of Ecuador’s most powerful gangs reportedly slipped past his prison guards while out on a visit to a doctor’s office, a former high-ranking official has revealed.
José ‘Fito’ Macías was reported missing during an inspection of his jail cell inside the maximum-security wing of the Zonal Penitentiary No. 8 in Guayaquil on Sunday.
Macías had a scheduled appointment on Christmas Day, but never made it back to the port city prison.
In an interview that aired on Radio Pichincha on Monday, the official, former Minister of the Interior José Serrano, said that another person returned in place of the leader of the feared Los Choneros criminal organization.
‘He went out for a medical consultation and the moment of entering, a person covering their face,’ he said.
‘So, what we are talking about? A person entered with their face covered and they pretend that this person who entered the Regional Rehabilitation No. 8 was Fito, but in reality it was not Fito.’
Handout picture released by the Ecuador’s Armed Forces showing José ‘Fito’ Macías, leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang, while being transferred to The Rock maximum-security complex inside the Zonal Penitentiary No 8 in Guayaquil, Ecuador on August 12, 2023. Macias is said to have fled from prison guards who escorted him to a doctor’s visit on December 25
A painting of Ecuadorian fugitive gang leader José ‘Fito’ Macías was found hanging in his prison cell Sunday moments after officials noticed that he was was missing from the Guayaquil detention center
Serrano, who served as Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2016 under the administration of former President Rafael Correa, said Macías’ escape established ‘a greater gravity’ because of officials did not notice until Sunday that he was missing.
Unlike Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, who escaped famously escaped from a Mexican prison via an underground tunnel, he said that it’s inconceivable that Macías fled the same way.
‘To make a tunnel it is practically impossible because the water level, will not allow you to build a tunnel on the ground the regional No. 8,’ Serrano said.
‘So where did you escape Fito? This is a serious issue. Fito left through the penitentiary’s big door.’
Macías was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes including drug trafficking and murder.
Aerial view of the Zonal Penitentiary No. 8 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, that Los Choneros leader Jose ‘Fito’ Macías
Police forces, backed by the Army, get ready to carry out a security operation following incidents at the El Inca prison in Quito on January 8
Los Choneros is a huge criminal organization that authorities have linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes.
Their network of members is massive and pervades many of the country’s prisons, with the group standing accused of controlling many penitentiaries from the inside.
A slew of images showed heavily armed military police and army units assembling in Guayaquil in preparation for the manhunt, while other units today conducted security operations to quell unrest in other jails populated by Los Choneros members.
La Regional jail, the maximum-security lockup that housed Macías, is located in a large prison compound that hosts more than 12,000 inmates.
For the last 12 years, Macías has resided within the prison walls there.
José ‘Fito’ Macías is the leader of Los Choneros, an Ecuadorian gang with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel
Police and military officers enter the Litoral Penitentiary on January 7, 2024 in Guayaquil, Ecuador
Police said they initially noticed his absence on Sunday morning and later raised the alarm when they could not locate him anywhere inside the penitentiary.
Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuador’s overcrowded prisons and official numbers show more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.
Macías’ network is responsible for much of this violence, according to authorities.
Members carry out contract killings, run extortion operations, move and sell drugs, and are the law inside a number of prisons.
Los Choneros and other similar groups, primarily ‘Los Lobos’ and ‘Los Tiguerones,’ have been fighting over territory and control.
The gangs have links to cartels from Colombia and Mexico, including the infamous Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel.