Guayaquil, July 22, 2025 – ‘Fito’ was his moniker on Ecuador’s most dangerous streets of Guayaquil, along the country’s western coast, where gang wars have been responsible for the highest homicide rates in Latin America. Ecuador has plunged into a violent crime epidemic for several years, fueled largely by criminal gangs vying for control over the nation’s lucrative drug routes.
The port city of Guayaquil has been the golden ticket, a key distribution point for cocaine and other illicit narcotics destined for the United States and Europe. A handful of armed gangs have been competing for the territory for years, until recently elected conservative President Daniel Noboa decided to clamp down on the violence and pursue a ruthless campaign against the criminal element in an effort to restore order and peace that was mandated by the people of Ecuador.
‘Fito’ was removed under guard of heavily armed Ecuadorian security forces from “La Roca”, or “The Rock”, a prison located in Guayaquil on Sunday afternoon, and was then placed on a flight to New York City, where he awaited a plea hearing scheduled for Monday morning in Brooklyn.
‘Fito’ pleaded not guilty on a seven-count indictment for international cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, including smuggling firearms from the United States. ‘Fito’ was sentenced in Ecuador to a 35-year stint for a string of violent crimes, but in January of 2024, he escaped from an Ecuadorian prison a second time—just two days ahead of his planned move to a maximum-security facility.
The prison system in Ecuador – not unlike many others in South America – is largely controlled by criminal outfits who have tremendous influence over guards and essential parts of the chain-of-custody apparatus that dictate how prisoners live out their lives in these facilities.
Unlike in the United States, where the standards for controlled supervision are much higher, and where oversight is to a degree which holds officers accountable, in countries like Ecuador, inmates live lavishly, as videos that circulated the country in 2023 showed ‘Fito’ occupying his own apartment in the prison, commandeered for himself, adorned with flat screen TVs, large king-size beds, a make-shift pool, and the company of women.
‘Fito’ will now be held temporarily at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where “he will be held in a to-be-determined prison”, according to his attorney Alexei Schacht.
