Overview

• Macías, leader of Los Choneros, was flown to New York on July 20 and arraigned the next day in Brooklyn federal court, where he pleaded not guilty to a seven-count indictment.
• He is charged with international cocaine distribution conspiracy, firearms smuggling and related offenses, each carrying penalties of up to life in prison.
• His extradition marks Ecuador’s first transfer of a national under the new referendum-backed law aimed at boosting cooperation against transnational criminal networks.
• Macías was recaptured on June 25 in an underground bunker beneath a luxury Manta home after his January 2024 escape from a maximum-security prison ignited widespread violence.
• U.S. prosecutors allege that Los Choneros, under Macías’s direction, trafficked cocaine through Ecuador’s ports and imported weapons from the U.S. in coordination with Mexican and Colombian cartels.