Guayaquil: A significant military and police operation was carried out in Ecuador on Saturday to transfer a powerful gang leader, who is accused of threatening a presidential candidate before he was killed, to a maximum security prison, according to officials.
Around 4,000 heavily armed agents stormed Prison 8 in Guayaquil, southwest Ecuador, at dawn, where Jose Adolfo Macias, aka "Fito," was being held as the leader of the notorious Los Choneros criminal organisation.
Security forces released photos of a bearded man wearing only his pants, lying on the ground with his arms bound in other photos, and holding his hands to his head in others.
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On social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced that "Fito" had been moved to La Roca, a 150-person maximum security facility that is a part of the same sizable penitentiary complex he was already in.
The prison where the gang leader was expelled had at least one cellblock under his control.
The shocking murder of journalist and ardent opponent of corruption Fernando Villavicencio on Wednesday resulted in the declaration of an emergency in Ecuador.
Villavicencio had complained that Macias had threatened to kill him, and Lasso has attributed the murder to organised crime.
The 59-year-old had claimed that "Fito" had threatened him a week prior to his death.
Villavicencio claimed to have received a call from a gang member's "emissary" warning him "that if I continue... mentioning Los Choneros, they are going to break me." Villavicencio revealed this to a local programme.
His party declared on Saturday that Andrea Gonzalez, who was his running mate, would replace him in the election on August 20.
Gonzalez, 36, is an environmental activist who has worked to protect forests, mangroves, and the ocean.
Due to his investigations, Villavicencio attracted the wrath of gangs and drug traffickers.
A seventh Colombian was killed in a shootout with his bodyguards, and six Colombians have been detained in connection with his murder. Who paid and hired the hitmen has not been disclosed by the authorities.
For his involvement in organised crime, drug trafficking, and murder, "Fito" had received a 34-year prison term.
Ecuador's prisons are now the main location for drug trafficking operations. Since 2021, over 430 prisoners have violently died, with dozens being dismembered and burned alive during conflicts between opposing gangs.
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The murder of Villavicencio has been denounced by the international community, including the United Nations, the US, and the EU.
In a letter to Quito Archbishop Alfredo Espinoza on Saturday, Pope Francis denounced the violence roiling Ecuador.
With all of his might, the pope denounced the "suffering brought on by unjustified violence."
