MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuadorean druglord family found in Argentina and deported back to Ecuador

It is very typical of gang leaders to find a safe place for their families so that they are not involved in criminal behavior, Bullrich explained

Law enforcement officers in the Argentine province of Córdoba raided a residence in an exclusive country club and arrested the wife and children of Ecuadorean druglord Alfonso Macías, alias “Fito,” whose escape from jail earlier this month triggered a wave of unprecedented violence nationwide.

Córdoba Police carried out an operation at the Valle del Golf“ club in the town of Malagueño, north of the province's capital. In addition to the Macías family, three other people were captured. Argentine authorities revoked their temporary residence permits and they were deported back to Ecuador on Friday. ”Through a migration resolution that canceled their transitory residence, we were able to hold them and expel them from the country as we did,“ Córdoba Security Minister Juan Pablo Quinteros explained.

There were no signs of Fito himself in Córdoba and authorities still investigate his whereabouts. Earlier reports that he might be in Colombia were later changed, saying that the wanted criminal might be in Peru, en route to Bolivia, where security forces have taken precautionary measures. Bolivian Deputy Minister of the Interior Jhonny Aguilera told local media that ”search and location activities” had been deployed.

Fito, who had been serving a 34-year prison sentence since 2011, escaped on Jan. 8 just before the army was to transfer him to a maximum security prison.

The deportees were Fito's wife Inda Mariela Peñarrieta Tuarez, his children Michelle (21), Ilse María (12), and Lian Sejam (4), a nephew of his Javier Macías Alcivar, a household helper Denny Yadira Laines Basurto, and family friend Angel Zambrano Chiquito.

Macías' wife is being linked to the alleged murder of prosecutor César Suárez, who was investigating the takeover of the television station and a large number of cases against Los Choneros, the organization led by Fito Macías. Other reports point to a splinter group known as the Chone killers to be behind the prosecutor's assassination.

Los Choneros control drug trade in Ecuador's coastal province of Manabi, where the town of Chone is located. The gang is said to have strong links to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel.

“It is very typical that criminal drug traffickers do what 'Fito' did. They always do the same thing: they look for a safe place for their families and that they are not involved in criminal behavior,” Argentina's Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said during a press conference on Friday.

“A few days ago we were surprised with a situation of extremely high danger in the Republic of Ecuador, where a cartel called 'Los Choneros', whose leader is nicknamed 'Fito', put the Ecuadorian people and the Ecuadorian Government in suspense, taking over television channels and universities and killing policemen and corrections officers in prisons. Fito is the leader of this murderous gang. He escaped from prison on January 8 and, a few days before, on the 5th, his wife with their children and other members of the clan traveled to Argentina,” Bullrich also explained.