Camilla Jessen
Jose Adolfo Macias has been extradited to the United States.
Jose Adolfo Macias, better known by his alias “Fito,” has been extradited to the United States, where he faces serious charges of cocaine and arms trafficking.
The decision was announced Sunday by Ecuador’s national prison authority (SNAI). He was captured in late June after more than 18 months on the run.
Fito, the leader of Ecuador’s powerful criminal gang Los Choneros, was handed over under heavy police and military guard, leaving the maximum-security La Roca detention center to board a flight that would deliver him into U.S. jurisdiction.
This was reported by Digi24.
A Historic First—and a Message to the Cartels
Fito’s extradition is a first for Ecuador.
In 2024, the country reinstated extradition by referendum as part of President Daniel Noboa’s aggressive crackdown on organized crime.
Macias is now the first Ecuadorian ever extradited under the new policy.
“We are sending him with great pleasure to face American law,” President Noboa told CNN.
Fito agreed to the extradition during a recent videoconference from prison, reportedly without contesting the U.S. request.
Who Is “Fito”?
Jose Adolfo Macias rose through the ranks to become the undisputed leader of Los Choneros, a gang deeply entrenched in Ecuador’s drug trade and believed to have close ties to Mexican cartels.
The U.S. Justice Department described him as “a ruthless leader and prolific drug trafficker for a violent transnational criminal organization,” according to Brooklyn District Attorney John Durham.
Macias had been serving a 34-year sentence for murder, drug trafficking, and organized crime when he escaped from a Guayaquil prison in January 2024.
His breakout triggered a national security crisis and widespread criticism of Ecuador’s penitentiary system.
In August 2023, he was linked to the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio,
Fito was not formally charged in the killing.
U.S. Justice Awaits
In April 2024, American prosecutors indicted Macias on charges related to cocaine trafficking and firearms offenses, setting the stage for his extradition.
Now in U.S. custody, Fito is expected to be prosecuted in Brooklyn, where federal courts have handled several high-profile drug cases involving Latin American cartel figures.
