CNN
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The Ecuadorian army revealed how they captured the country’s most wanted man, Dr. Adolfo “Phito” Macia.
After almost 18 months of manhunt for the leader of criminal group Los Ceneros, Ecuadorian security block made a breakthrough on June 25th.
Authorities immediately travelled to the area, began a 10-hour operation, and attempted to find and capture the infamous gang. To prevent the attack from being blocked, the military and police closed access within a 15-block radius, with no one allowed to enter or depart the site.
Special teams from the military eventually entered the property to gather more information and control the House.
It was a well-equipped villa with pool, gym, appliances, games room, marble-like walls and features that show the property is still under construction.
One area of the house included a bunker with fully camouflaged holes in the floor and with hidden access and air conditioning.
“The police and the military on the scene began searching with instruments to see where the alias ‘Fito’ was hiding,” said Ecuadorian Home Minister John Lenberg.
As surveillance flights were identifying irregular crop fields behind the house, authorities requested the use of excavators to find the drug lord.
“They began to excavate. As soon as this happened, if we continued, the roof of his bunker would collapse, causing Fit to panic. At that moment he opened the hatch where the army was already located and climbed up from the hole he had been hiding.
The soldiers pinned Macia to the ground, ordered him to put his weapon in the first place and tossed his full name out loud.
“Adolfo Mathias Villamar,” he said footage from the Army showed him, lying on the floor.
After the surgery, authorities arrested Macia, and four other men were identified as part of his security details.
Macias was immediately relocated to Manta Air Force Base, then to Guayaquil Air Force Base. From there he was taken to the largest security Laroca prison in the Guayaquil Prison complex behind the Rajoul prison where he escaped in January 2024.
A photo released later by the Home Office showed a drug lord trapped inside his phone.
President Daniel Novore said Ecuador is working to hand him over to the US — he faces drug and weapons charges — and is waiting for a response from American officials.
Macias is one of Ecuador’s most notorious gangsters and is the only founding member of Los Ceneros, believed to be still alive. In 2011 he was sentenced to a think tank insight crime “due to a series of crimes, including murder and drug trafficking,” but was recaptured several months after he left prison in February 2013.
Little is known about his life before the crime, but he gained a reputation as a gang money laundering expert during his jail time for over a decade.
Before he escaped prison in 2024, the government had planned to move Macia to a higher security facility. Novoa’s secretary spokesperson told local channels that the news had probably reached Macia and urged him to escape.
