The leader of one of Ecuador’s biggest drug-trafficking gangs has been captured in an operation involving Spanish police, Ecuador’s president Daniel Noboa has said.
Wilmer “Pipo” Chavarria, the head of Los Lobos, was detained in the city of Malaga, according to Spain’s National Police.
President Noboa said Chavarria had faked his own death, changed his identity and hidden in Europe while continuing to control criminal operations in Ecuador, including illegal mining and ordering murders.
His family had claimed in 2021 that he had died from a heart attack due to Covid.
Both Ecuador and the US have designated Los Lobos (The Wolves) as a terrorist organisation.