Argentina arrests, deports family of Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive
Al Jazeera
Drug boss Jose Adolfo Macias is at large after escaping from an Ecuadorean prison, triggering wave of gang violence.
The wife and children of Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive, drug kingpin Jose Adolfo Macias, were arrested in Argentina and have been deported to Ecuador.
The Los Choneros gang leader, known as “Fito”, escaped from a prison in the port city of Guayaquil this month, leading to a surge in gang violence across Ecuador that prompted President Daniel Noboa to declare a 60-day state of emergency in the country, which is home to 17.8 million people.
Argentina’s security minister Patricia Bullrich said: “We are proud that Argentina was a hostile territory for a group of drug dealers who could’ve come to settle here. Mr Fito had a sentence of 38 years and he escaped, leaving a trail of blood and death in Ecuador.”
Fito’s wife Mariela Macias, her three children, a nephew, a family friend and a nanny were deported, Bullrich told a news conference on Friday.
Mariela arrived in Argentina two weeks ago just before her husband escaped. In December, they bought a house in an exclusive neighbourhood of Cordoba, in central Argentina, in cash.
