Ecuador gang leader wanted for murder of presidential candidate arrested
The leader of one of Ecuador’s biggest drug-trafficking gangs has been arrested in Mexico City, officials say.
Ángel Esteban Aguilar Morales – better known by the alias Lobo Menor – was wanted in connection with the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023, Ecuador’s interior minister John Reimberg, said.
He added that Anguilar had obtained papers using a fake Colombian identity.
Mexico’s security minister, Omar Garcia Harfunch, said Anguilar was “the subject of a red notice issued by Interpol and is linked to drug trafficking, extortion, and homicide”.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro described him as “one of the world’s most notorious assassins”.
“This result represents a significant blow against transnational organised crime and confirms the effectiveness of trilateral cooperation between Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico in the fight against multi-crime networks,” Petro said of Wednesday’s arrest.
Morales was arrested during a joint operation involving Ecuador’s navy, security and migration officers, according to Harfunch.
Villavicencio, a member of the country’s national assembly and an ex-journalist, was shot dead as he left a campaign rally in the capital, Quito, in August 2023.
Five people linked to Los Lobos, including the gang’s then alleged leader Carlos Angulo, were jailed for his murder a year later.
Prosecutors alleged that Angulo – widely known as The Invisible – ordered the hit from the Quito prison in which he is detained – something he denied.
The US declared Los Lobos a Foreign Terrorist Organisation last year, accusing it of “terrorising and inflicting brutal violence on the Ecuadorean people”.
It is said to have deep connections to the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel in Mexico.
Ecuador’s geographical location – sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine – has turned it into a key transit country for the illicit drug.
Around 70% of the cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru is estimated to be shipped through Ecuador.
By BBC News