Ecuador recaptures gang leader wanted in the United States more than a year after his prison escape

QUITO Ecuador AP A fugitive drug trafficker craved by officials in Ecuador and the United States was recaptured more than a year after he escaped from prison in the Andean nation Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa informed Wednesday Jos Adolfo Mac as alias Fito who led a gang called Los Choneros in Ecuador and has been indicted in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States was captured in the Ecuadorian city of Manta his hometown agents in Ecuador mentioned Interpol had issued an arrest warrant for Macias after hi s mysterious prison escape in early from the Guayaquil Regional Prison where he was serving a -year sentence for drug trafficking Ecuadorian officers have yet to explain how he escaped They only learned of his escape when a military contingent arrived to transfer him to another maximum-security prison but didn t find him in his cell The Ecuadorian army verified Macias recapture in what appeared to be the basement of a house A video provided by the army established the moment of the arrest with a uniformed officer aiming a gun at the head of the drug trafficker who gave his full name The officers had detected him hiding in a small hole beneath what appeared to be a kitchen counter Wednesday s announcement of his arrest comes in the same week that Federico G mez alias Fede the leader of another gang called Las Aguilas was proven to have escaped from an Ecuadorian prison Last year U S Attorney John Durham explained in a news release that Macias led Los Choneros and its arrangement of assassins and drug and weapon traffickers since at least With an extensive criminal record including charges of murder and organized crime Mac as has cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the citizens in his home country While behind bars in he issued a video addressed to the Ecuadorian people while flanked by armed men He also threw parties in prison where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches The seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn charges Mac as and an unidentified co-defendant with international cocaine distribution conspiracy and weapons counts including smuggling firearms from the United States Los Choneros employed people to buy firearms components and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador according to the indictment Cocaine would flow into the United States with the help of Mexican cartels Los Choneros operated a vast setup responsible for the shipment and distribution of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South America through Central America and Mexico to the United States and elsewhere the indictment says Last year the U S classified Los Choneros as one of the greater part violent gangs and affirmed its connection to powerful Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the surrounding region Executives in Ecuador have classified the gang as a terrorist organization Earlier this month the Ecuadorian cabinet informed the reward for the capture of Mac as would be increased to million