Wife and daughter of 'Fito' captured in Colombia for money laundering of $25 million
Colombia's police, with FBI support, detained Inda Peñarrieta and Michelle Macías in Santander, sought by Ecuadorian justice for money laundering.
Operation in Santander removes two associates of Ecuadorian drug lord from circulation
Colombia's police, backed by the FBI and Ecuadorian agents, captured the wife and a daughter of Adolfo Macías, alias "Fito", the top leader of Los Choneros, according to information reported by rfi.fr on Sunday citing Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella.
The detainees, identified as Inda Peñarrieta and Michelle Macías, were arrested in Sabana de Torres, the department of Santander, in the north-east of the country. Ecuadorian justice had accused them of laundering more than 25 million dollars through shell companies linked to the criminal organisation.
De la Espriella announced the operation through social network X and said he would transfer them to Ecuador. "Ecuadorian authorities are investigating them for the use of shell companies to launder money from the organisation. I will gladly send them to my good friend, President Daniel Noboa, so they can answer to Ecuadorian justice," he wrote.
Noboa responded on the same platform: "That's how it works, Abelardo: together and with results," and added that "they are now returning to Ecuador to answer to Ecuadorians."
Ecuadorian Interior Minister John Reimberg described both women as "high-value targets" and stated that until that day they had remained as fugitives. "We pursue criminals, we find them and we bring them so they pay for the damage they have caused," he also declared on X.
"Fito" was extradited to the United States in 2025, a month after being recaptured following his escape from an Ecuadorian maximum-security prison. He became the first Ecuadorian citizen to be extradited after Noboa promoted a referendum to reform legislation as part of the "war" against drug trafficking. Before a New York court he faces seven charges, including drug trafficking and arms trafficking, with sentences ranging from 20 years in prison to life imprisonment.
Los Choneros, classified as a "terrorist" organisation by the United States, maintains links with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel and operates in one of the most active corridors on the continent: around 70 per cent of cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru, the world's leading exporters of that drug, transits through Ecuador.
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are part of the Shield of the Americas, the coalition of right-wing governments led by Donald Trump to combat organised crime in the region.
Source: Google News EC — Crime