Summer InSights – Fito’s Fortress: How an Ecuador Prison Became a Criminal Command Center⁠

This is the story of how a gang boss became a warlord. How a prison became the headquarters of a criminal empire. And how Ecuador became a nation at war with its own shadows.

This is the story of José Adolfo Macías Villamar — better known as “Fito” — an Ecuadorian crime boss who ran his criminal empire from inside an Ecuadorian prison, who escaped prison twice in ten years, and who, after his recent recapture, has become the first Ecuadorian to be extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges. 

This month, we are diving into the extraordinary stories of criminal kingpins from around the region in our annual series, Summer InSights. For the next four weeks, our audio content will feature narrated stories on these crime dons and the illegal economies that they control. 

Summer InSights – Fito’s Fortress: How an Ecuador Prison Became a Criminal Command Center | Written by James Bargent and read by Liza Schmidt.

Visit insightcrime.org for more information.