Ecuador transferred a strong gang chief, accused of threatening a presidential candidate earlier than he was slain, to a most safety jail through an enormous navy and police operation on Saturday, officers stated.
At daybreak some 4,000 closely armed brokers entered Jail 8 in Guayaquil in southwestern Ecuador, the place the top of the highly effective Los Choneros felony group, Jose Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito,” was being held.
Photos shared by safety forces confirmed a bearded man in his underwear, together with his fingers on his head in some photographs and mendacity on the ground with arms tied in others.
Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso reported on social media web site X, previously often called Twitter, that “Fito” had been transferred to La Roca, a 150-person most safety jail that’s a part of the identical giant penitentiary advanced he was already in.
The gang chief had managed at the very least one cellblock within the jail from which he was eliminated.
Ecuador has been below a state of emergency after the shock assassination Wednesday of journalist and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio.
Lasso has blamed the homicide on organized crime, and Villavicencio had complained of receiving loss of life threats from Macias.
Every week earlier than the 59-year-old was killed, he had stated that “Fito” was threatening him.
Villavicencio instructed an area program that an “emissary” of the gang chief had contacted him and warned “that if I proceed… mentioning Los Choneros, they’re going to break me.”
On Saturday his celebration introduced that his working mate, Andrea Gonzalez, would take his place within the August 20 election.
Gonzalez, 36, is an environmental advocate who has fought particularly for the safety of oceans, forests and mangroves.
– ‘Unjustifiable violence’ –
Villavicencio drew the ire of gangs and drug traffickers for his investigations.
Six Colombians have been arrested in his homicide, whereas a seventh was killed in a shootout together with his bodyguards. Authorities have not stated who employed and paid the hitmen.
“Fito” had been sentenced to 34 years in jail for organized crime, drug trafficking and homicide.
Prisons have turn into the middle of operations for drug trafficking in Ecuador.
Greater than 430 inmates have died violently since 2021, dozens of them dismembered and incinerated amid disputes between rival gangs.
The worldwide neighborhood has condemned Villavicencio’s homicide, together with the UN, United States and European Union.
On Saturday, Pope Francis rejected the violence plaguing Ecuador in a message to the Archbishop of Quito, Alfredo Espinoza.
The pope condemned “with all his power” the “struggling brought on by unjustifiable violence.”
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