On January 7, local time, in Ecuador, police and military officers entered the prison. Source: People's Vision).
The drug lord boss suddenly disappeared from prison, and the prisoners took the prison guards hostage and shouted at **: "Be careful of their lives!."”
On the 7th local time, such a scene occurred in the prison known as the highest security level in Ecuador. The country's **Noboa announced on the 8th that the country will enter a 60-day state of emergency "due to serious civil unrest".
Stealing the day: I went out to seek medical treatment, and when I came back, I changed people
In Ecuador, there is a Littolar prison, which is of the highest security level. It is built on a high ground by the sea, immediately adjacent to the water. The country's largest prison has 12 wards and holds more than 12,000 prisoners.
It has housed several "most wanted criminals," and drug lord Adolfo Masias, nicknamed "Fito," moved here last August.
On August 12, 2023 local time, Fito was transferred to Litolar Prison. Source: People's Vision).
What do you think prisoner escape looks like?Dig a tunnel with a spoon?Use a towel to knot the rope over the wallNone of these fitos were considered. His plan to escape from prison must have been carefully planned.
On December 25 last year, prison inmates had a day off. Coincidentally, that day, Fito had a "sudden illness" and urgently needed to go out for medical treatment, and the prison guards drove out of the prison and went to the Guayaquil City Hospital, where a sneaky escape plan began.
Accompanied by prison guards, Fito conducts a series of examinations.
At this point, Fito put on a stand-in. After a quick check, the prison guards returned "Fito" to the prison.
The senior of the prison ** conducted another check-in. "Fito" lowered his head, covered his face with his hands, and entered the cell. At this point, the real Fito was nowhere to be found.
Riots in six prisons, with prisoners holding guns to the heads of guards
On January 7 of this year, riots broke out in six prisons in Ecuador, sirens sounded everywhere, prisoners and prison guards picked up ** and attacked each other, and several prison guards were detained.
There is a passage circulating on the Internet**, in which the prison guards put a gun to the head of the prisoner, asked him to find a solution to let the prisoner be released, and threatened him with his life, asking him not to act rashly, "Be careful of their lives, we dare not guarantee that this group of people can get out completely."
The incident alarmed prisons everywhere, and Ecuador dispatched its armed forces to crack down.
At Ecuador's highest-security Litolar prison, prison guards went to Fito's cell to check it. When I opened the door, I saw only a self-portrait of Fito hanging on the wall, and the electronic shackles, watches, whiskey, and other items in the cell were all gone, and the room was spotless.
City-wide search: More than 3,000 people were dispatched to find drug lords
In a post on social media on the 8th, Noboa said that he had just signed a state of emergency order to ensure that the armed forces operate with full political and legal support. "We will not negotiate with *** and will do whatever it takes to restore peace to the Ecuadorian people," he said. ”
The state of emergency will last for 60 days, with a nationwide curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Ecuador** Noboa has declared a 60-day state of emergency across the country. Source: People's Vision).
The commander of the Armed Forces of Ecuador, Cesar, said at a press conference that it was determined that a prisoner in Guayaquil prison was missing. The armed forces have sent more than 3,000 personnel to search the city and carry out security operations throughout the country. Additional manpower was dispatched to stand guard outside the prison and lock the port position.
Serrano, the former Minister of the Interior of Ecuador, participated in a TV interview and said that the prisoner was "Fito", and his escape endangered *** He also said that this matter is very serious, a huge prison, and the prison guards only found out that the person was gone on the 7th. At the same time, the forces of the drug cartels apparently infiltrated the prison, and two senior police officers were involved in the escape plan.
Since 2021, Ecuador has been suffering from a prison crisis: more than 450 prisoners have been eliminated from each other, and a total of 11 prison major ** have occurred.
According to the Ecuadorian authorities, the prison ** incident is inseparable from the criminal syndicate Los Choneros, of which Fito is the leader. For drug smuggling and extortion, members of the Los Angeles cartel have spread across prisons, often engaging in gang fights and even fighting with the police for control of prisons. Like other gangs, their criminal activities can extend beyond prison walls and even have ties to the drug cartel of Mexican drug lord Guzmán. In Ecuador, they have more than the police.
[Review] The first prison escape: escaped by boat for several months, in his hometown**
It is worth noting that Fito has already had a prison escape experience.
In 2011, the 31-year-old Fito was captured by Ecuador** and sentenced to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and homicide, and imprisoned in La Rocca, the highest-security prison in Latin America. It is worth noting that La Carlo prison exploded in population and became one of the most crowded prisons in the following two years.
According to Ecuador**, Fito Prison is a separate suite with mobile phones, computers, whiskey and other items. During this period, there were also drug gangs armed with guns and police officers in an attempt to rescue him, but in the end they were unsuccessful.
Fito was not idle, he saw acquaintances in prison, another gang of Zambrano, and members of the previous Los drug cartel, who teamed up with Zambrano to form a new gang inside the prison to snatch control of the prison.
One night in February 2013, the opportunity came. During the change of guards to check, there was a commotion in the cell, and Fito snatched the prison guard's ** and took 17 people to escape from the prison by boat from a path leading to the water.
A few months later, Ecuador** got the news that Fito had returned to his hometown in Manabí, and he ** again**. Since then, he has been secretly held in a prison.
Just when people thought that Fito's influence was gradually waning, he had one more crime: killing the ** candidate.
In 2023, while preparing for the Ecuadorian ** elections, Fernando Villavicensi, who spoke out against Ecuador's powerful drug cartels, was killed in the capital Quito in August of that year. A few days before his death, Villavicencio said that he and his team had received threats from "Fito and Los Gioneros." ”
The security situation in Ecuador is dire. Lasso, then, then declared a 60-day state of emergency across the country.
On August 12, 2023, Ecuador deployed 4,000 police and soldiers to transfer Fito and other dangerous prisoners to Litolar Prison, a maximum-security prison. Lasso said the transfer was due to the discovery of drugs, ammunition and objects in the prison where Fito was previously held.
In November 2023, the 34-year-old Noboa took office in Ecuador and made security one of his top priorities.
【Character】Like a wolf: Growing up with drugs and snatching control
There are four major drug clusters in the world, of which the Silver Triangle is the agglomeration of Latin America. On one side of Ecuador is Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, and not far from Bolivia, one of the world's largest coca leaf growers. In the 80s of the last century, Ecuador was an important channel for the delivery of coca alkali from Peru to Colombia.
Fito was born in the Ecuadorian border city of Manabí, where his family was on a drug trafficking route.
In the 21st century, Colombia's neighbor was no longer at peace, and the armed forces in the country began to push the cultivation of coca crops to the Ecuadorian border.
It also opened up a drug entry and exit route, and also attracted Mexican drug dealers to join. The drug trade is the most attractive to the *** forces, so more and more drug trafficking forces began to gather in the country, Fito was deeply affected and was very familiar with money, drugs and **. At the age of 18, during the drug trafficking, he met the founder of the Los drug cartel, Jorge Bismark Véliz ESPA, who joined the Los drug cartel, which at that time had only eight members, between the ages of 18 and 30.
Fito then facilitated the Los drug cartel to work with Colombian armed groups to establish two cocaine transport routes.
The first is the Pacific route, ** in the province of Nariño, Colombia.
The second is the Amazon route, where the drug ** is in the province of Putumayo, Colombia, where cocaine production is second only to Nariño.
According to the data on drug seizures, 44 percent of these drugs were destined for the United States and 22 per cent to Europe.
In addition, Fito was also in charge of money laundering, thus hooking up with the Guzmán drug cartel in Mexico.
In 2017, while in prison, Fito operated a rebellion in which he teamed up with a police captain to lead to the former leader Gerald**, the gang that took control of Gerald, as well as drug trafficking routes from Colombia and Peru to North America. Gerald was eventually assassinated in prison.
Fito, however, is in no hurry to become a leader. With people in prison, he hatches a bigger plan. Laskinia was offside and became the new leader of the Los drug cartel.
Referring to Fito, Arturo Torres, a journalist who has seen him, believes that "Fito is like a wolf, he hides in prison, fearing for his life, and in the last few years this wolf has gained more territory inside and outside the prison." ”
In December 2020, Laskinia was ** in a shopping mall in Manta. Fito rises to become the leader of the Los drug cartel.
Thereafter, Fito managed criminal activities in prisons, hiring killings, extortion, drug trafficking, prison law enforcement, ......
Now, Fito has escaped from prison, and for Ecuador, a peaceful life will not be able to return.
Text correspondent Luo Weirui.