Choneros’ Extraditions to US Will Test Ecuador’s Kingpin Strategy

The extraditions to the United States of key members of the Choneros is a litmus test for Ecuador’s kingpin strategy of culling criminal organizations from the top down. 

Among those on the list for extradition is Ronald Javier Macías Villamar, alias “Javi,” the brother of former Choneros leader José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito.” Javi was arrested for homicide and money laundering in Bogotá, Colombia, on June 16, and was quickly sent to a maximum-security prison in Ecuador. Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said he would be extradited to the United States “fairly quickly.”

SEE ALSO: José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito” Profile

Javi was among those identified as a possible successor to Fito, after Fito became the first Ecuadorian national to be extradited to the United States in July 2025, following a change to the law the previous year.

Another possible heir, Celso Miguel Moreira Heredia, alias “Patucho Celso,” was extradited to the United States on June 18. He was arrested two years earlier at his birthday party in the city of Guayaquil, which was reportedly attended by a former vice president of Ecuador’s Congress. Although released while awaiting trial, he was recaptured in the province of Manabí in September 2025.

 Extraditing Leaders is Only Half the Battle

The extraditions could lower crime and violence in Ecuador and permanently disable the Choneros, but only if the government implements other crime-fighting measures that debilitate the fragmented groups that often emerge from such abrupt decapitations.  

Although Ecuador has implemented a crackdown in its prisons, authorities have failed to prevent inmates from communicating with the outside world, meaning leaders can continue directing criminal operations from behind bars. Even though these extraditions will effectively remove Javi and Patucho Celso from Ecuador’s criminal landscape, they will open up a battle for succession among those remaining.

“Lieutenants have that know-how and useful connections of interest within the public and private sectors, which very easily allow them to migrate to another organized crime group,” organized crime analyst Michelle Maffei told InSight Crime.

Other countries like Colombia and Mexico have learned this lesson the hard way. Captures, killings, and extraditions have led to the proliferation of criminal groups, leading to a kind of criminal stasis among dozens and sometimes hundreds of groups who branch into low-barrier criminal economies. 

“We need to understand the experience we’ve already had in Ecuador, Mexico, and Colombia,  which shows that when a leader falls, the organization doesn’t usually disappear; a succession process occurs, it reorganizes, or it fragments,” Guillermo Palacios, a criminology consultant and former regional anti-drug chief in Ecuador, told InSight Crime.

Ecuador has already seen this process in miniature. Last year, Ecuadorian authorities arrested both Fito and, in a joint operation with Spanish authorities, the leader of the Lobos, the country’s most significant criminal group.

Even so, homicide rates hit record levels in 2025, and extortion is booming.

Palacios says the government should prioritize tackling corruption if it wants to effectively disrupt crime groups but must also disrupt those groups’ financial operations.

Meanwhile, Maffei says the authorities should target political elites who facilitate organized crime. 

Additional reporting by Sara García.