U.S. military forces sank a floating refueling vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, September 7, tied to Los Choneros, one of Ecuador’s most powerful criminal organizations — the latest strike in an escalating campaign against a group Washington designated a terrorist organization exactly one year ago.
Under the direction of U.S. Southern Command, forces from Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere (JTF-WHEM) intercepted and sank the vessel, which officials described as providing fuel and logistical support to trafficking boats operating far from the Ecuadorian coast.
Individuals aboard the vessel were removed before it was sunk and are expected to be transferred to Ecuadorian authorities.
SOUTHCOM stood up JTF-WHEM in August as part of a broader effort to confront regional security threats and coordinate crisis response across the Western Hemisphere. The operation represents a shift in tactics from the boat-interception strikes that have defined much of the administration’s maritime anti-trafficking campaign this year, targeting logistics infrastructure — fuel and supply points — rather than only the trafficking vessels themselves.
Los Choneros’ Terrorist Designation
The State Department designated Los Choneros, along with a second Ecuadorian gang, Los Lobos, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists on September 4, 2025 — one year and three days before Monday’s strike.
Then-spokesperson Thomas Pigott stated at the time that both groups “have attacked and threatened public officials and their families, security personnel, judges, prosecutors, and journalists in Ecuador,” and that their “ultimate goal is to control drug trafficking routes through Ecuador by terrorizing and inflicting brutal violence on the Ecuadorian people.”
The State Department also noted both organizations maintain direct ties to two Mexican cartels already designated as FTOs and SDGTs: the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).
The designations came pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224, and took effect upon publication in the Federal Register.
A Gang With Deep Roots & a Notorious Leader
Los Choneros trace back to the late 1990s in Ecuador’s coastal region, a strategically important corridor for drug trafficking routes, according to reporting on the group’s history. What began as a local criminal operation involved in robbery and extortion grew over the following two decades into one of Ecuador’s dominant national criminal forces.
The group’s leader, Adolfo Macías — widely known by his alias “Fito” — escaped from a maximum-security Ecuadorian prison in January 2024, triggering a nationwide security crisis, before being recaptured in June 2025.
In July 2025, Ecuador extradited Macías to the United States, where he became the first Ecuadorian citizen ever extradited from Ecuador to face justice in an American court, and now faces multiple drug trafficking and firearms charges.
A Splinter Faction Faces Its Own Designation
Los Choneros’ reach has extended beyond its original structure. In 2020, a faction split off to form Chone Killers — named for the Ecuadorian city of Chone — which the State Department designated as its own Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in July 2026, describing it as responsible for “numerous attacks targeting civilians, law enforcement officers, and government officials, including high-profile assassinations of public officials.”
Part of a Broader Campaign in Ecuador
President Daniel Noboa, a close ally of the Trump administration, has pursued an aggressive, U.S.-backed security crackdown throughout 2026, imposing curfews and deploying Ecuador’s military to multiple provinces.
In March, the United States launched joint operations against designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador alongside Ecuadorian armed forces, with Noboa stating at the time that the U.S. had joined Ecuador’s “regional allies” in confronting drug cartels responsible for moving an estimated 70% of the world’s cocaine supply through Ecuadorian ports.
American commandos have since joined Ecuadorian troops in additional joint missions targeting suspected criminal infrastructure along the country’s coast. Noboa’s tactics have drawn scrutiny both domestically and internationally, including a controversial 2024 police raid on Mexico’s embassy in Quito to arrest fugitive former Vice President Jorge Glas.
Monday’s strike is one entry in a considerably larger U.S. military campaign against Latin American criminal and trafficking networks throughout 2026. U.S. forces have carried out a series of strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean, with reported deaths from that campaign reaching at least 212 since early September.
Days before the Los Choneros vessel strike, Trump announced on Truth Social that U.S. Southern Command had killed Tren de Aragua’s alleged leader, Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as “Niño Guerrero,” in what the administration described as a “swift and lethal kinetic strike.”
The most significant single operation of the broader campaign remains the January 2026 capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, who was subsequently brought to New York to face drug-trafficking charges — an operation that set the tone for the more aggressive posture Washington has taken toward the region's criminal and political networks throughout the year.
With JTF-WHEM now the operational arm coordinating U.S. military action across the hemisphere, and Los Choneros’ logistics infrastructure taking direct hits even a year after its formal terrorist designation, the group’s ability to sustain trafficking operations through Ecuador’s Pacific coast faces mounting pressure.
Whether this specific strike meaningfully disrupts Los Choneros’ broader network, or simply forces the organization to rebuild its logistics chain elsewhere, will likely become clearer as the U.S. military’s regional campaign continues in the weeks ahead.
