The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged on April 2 that the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang, who remains at large, depended on bribes, military weapons, and hitmen, also known as sicarios, to import tons of cocaine into the United States.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued an indictment on April 2 against José Adolfo Macías Villamar.
“These sicarios regularly used military-grade weapons like machine guns, AK 47s, and grenades to perpetrate violence, including murder, torture, and kidnapping to further the goals of the organization,” U.S. Attorney John Durham wrote in the charging document obtained by NTD, sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.
The 11-page indictment includes counts of international cocaine distribution, use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking, and smuggling goods from the United States.
The indictment alleges that from about 2020 to 2025, Macías Villamar, 45, also known as Fito, was the principal leader of Los Choneros, one of the most violent gangs in Ecuador.
Macías Villamar is considered a fugitive since he escaped last year from a Guayaquil, Ecuador, prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking. He is not in custody in the United States, according to prosecutors.
For example, while incarcerated in 2023, Macias Villamar was known to throw parties where there was alcohol and roosters used for cockfighting matches, and he reportedly recorded a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian people” in which he was surrounded by men holding guns.
Macías Villamar subsequently vanished from his prison cell in January 2024, and last year, the United States linked Los Choneros to Mexican drug cartels that threaten Ecuador and the surrounding South American region. The statement further says that Ecuadorian authorities have classified the gang as a terrorist organization.
The reward for Macías Villamar’s capture was recently boosted to $1 million by the Ecuadorian government.
Prosecutors accuse Macías Villamar of directing Los Choneros members to commit violent acts against law enforcement, Ecuadorian politicians, attorneys, prosecutors, and civilians, and of obtaining many of their firearms and weapons by illegally trafficking and exporting them from the United States.
“The defendant was a ruthless leader and prolific drug trafficker for a violent transnational criminal organization,” Durham said in the statement. “By leading the Los Choneros’ network of assassins and drug and weapon traffickers and importing potentially lethal quantities of cocaine into the United States, the defendant has caused great harm to his own country and the United States, which was the destination for the vast majority of Los Choneros’ cocaine shipments.”
If convicted, the statement lists punishment as a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison.
