The fugitive leader of Ecuador’s Los Choneros gang has been recaptured after nearly 18 months on the run, according to President Daniel Noboa.

Jose Adolfo Macias, also known as “Fito”, escaped from Guayaquil prison in January 2024, where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking and murder.

Following his capture, Macias will now be extradited to the US, where he was indicted by a federal court for charges related to drug trafficking and firearms smuggling, Noboa said on the X social media platform on Wednesday.

Noboa had previously offered $1m for assistance in Macias’s capture and dispatched thousands of police officers and members of the armed forces to find him.

“My recognition to our police and military who participated in this operation. More will fall, we will reclaim the country. No truce,” Noboa said on X.

Macias reportedly escaped ahead of his transfer to a maximum-security prison, but authorities have yet to explain how he succeeded.

The successful escape “triggered widespread riots, bombings, kidnappings, the assassination of a prominent prosecutor, and an armed attack on a TV network during a live broadcast”, according to the United States government, leading Noboa to declare a 60-day state of emergency across Ecuador.

The Ecuadorian president also designated 22 gangs, including Los Choneros, as “terrorist groups”.

The US Department of the Treasury separately sanctioned both Macias and Los Choneros in February 2024 for drug trafficking and instigating violence across Ecuador.

Ecuador was once one of Latin America’s most peaceful countries, but its proximity to Peru and Colombia – the world’s top producers of cocaine – has made it a prime target for criminal groups exporting drugs abroad.

Competition between rival local gangs, backed by foreign criminal syndicates from Mexico to as far as Albania, has led to an explosion in violence across the country.