The leader of the Lobos, in Quito, escaped when the country was facing urban bombings and prison riots. The attacks were a smokescreen for Colón Pico to escape and a first response to what is coming: ‘Metastasis 2’
The first week of January 2024 has been marked by acts of violence initiated by narco-criminal groups.
Two events came together, leading to attacks, threats, kidnappings and prison riots on a national scale: the escape of two ringleaders, the first, Adolfo Macías, alias ‘Fito’, leader of the Choneros; and the second, Fabricio Colón Pico, leader of the Wolves.
Both gangs are enemies and respond to different Mexican cartels. The Choneros are allies of the Sinaloa cartel and the Lobos de Jalisco Nueva Generación.
Curtain for escape
Between January 8 and 9, 2024, in several cities in the country there were riots and in the afternoon, night and early morning alerts of car bombs and explosives.
While the authorities were deployed to deal with these criminal acts, at 10:45 p.m., ‘Colón Pico’ escaped from the Riobamba prison, province of Chimborazo, where he was being held in preventive detention for the crime of kidnapping, although he was also a tall man. interest for having been accused, by the State Attorney General, Diana Salazar, of threatening him.
Currently, the whereabouts of ‘Colón Pico’ and ‘Fito’ are unknown; both are in the Government’s reward program.
‘Metastasis 2’
The threats to the life of prosecutor Diana Salazar increased after revealing drug trafficking alliances with judges, prosecutors and police.
LA HORA learned that a second part would be prepared, in which close links between politicians and businessmen with drug trafficking would be revealed.
The growth of the Wolves
From the late 1990s until 2020, the Choneros were the largest and most dangerous criminal gang in the country. After the death of their leader, Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias ‘Rasquiña’, the armed groups became dissidents.
Little by little, the enemy group of the Lobos grew, which, according to police reports, has a greater presence in the Sierra and leads drug trafficking in Quito.
The eyes of the authorities were placed on this gang, after prosecutor Diana Salazar pointed out that it was responsible for threats against her life and that she was allegedly behind the murder of the former presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio.
According to the Insight Crime foundation “the Wolves have become “in the engine of the Ecuadorian criminal machine,” since it controls “transportation, storage, on certain routes in our country so that it can be transferred, or in this case contaminating containers to be transferred, to other countries.”
Among the criminal groups that are allies of the Lobos are the Tiguerones (Esmeraldas) and Chone Killers (Manabí and Guayas).
In fact, the Tiguerones were identified as the gang that entered the TC Televisión channel with weapons and threatened its officials.
Illegal minery
According to an investigation by the information portal Code Vidrio carried out in Azuay, the Lobos directly control and operate about twenty illegal gold mines. “In addition, they carry out extortion (vaccines) in another 30 mines owned by private companies and control 40 groups of illegal miners, called saberros.”
This would be one of its largest sources of income, since “it generates tens of millions of dollars every month, and partly explains the sustained growth of members of that criminal group over the last three years.” (DLH)