BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leader of one of Ecuador’s biggest drug-trafficking gangs has been arrested in Mexico City, officials say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00c1ngel Esteban Aguilar Morales – better known by the alias Lobo Menor – was wanted in connection with the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023, Ecuador’s interior minister John Reimberg, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that Anguilar had obtained papers using a fake Colombian identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mexico’s security minister, Omar Garcia Harfunch, said Anguilar was “the subject of a red notice issued by Interpol and is linked to drug trafficking, extortion, and homicide”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro described him as “one of the world’s most notorious assassins”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This result represents a significant blow against transnational organised crime and confirms the effectiveness of trilateral cooperation between Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico in the fight against multi-crime networks,” Petro said of Wednesday’s arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morales was arrested during a joint operation involving Ecuador’s navy, security and migration officers, according to Harfunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Villavicencio, a member of the country’s national assembly and an ex-journalist, was shot dead as he left a campaign rally in the capital, Quito, in August 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five people linked to Los Lobos, including the gang’s then alleged leader Carlos Angulo, were jailed for his murder a year later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors alleged that Angulo – widely known as The Invisible – ordered the hit from the Quito prison in which he is detained – something he denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US declared Los Lobos a Foreign Terrorist Organisation last year, accusing it of “terrorising and inflicting brutal violence on the Ecuadorean people”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is said to have deep connections to the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ecuador’s geographical location – sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine – has turned it into a key transit country for the illicit drug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around 70% of the cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru is estimated to be shipped through Ecuador.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: The leader of one of Ecuador’s biggest drug-trafficking gangs has been arrested in Mexico City, officials say. \u00c1ngel Esteban Aguilar Morales – better known by the alias Lobo Menor – was wanted in connection with the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023, Ecuador’s interior minister John Reimberg, said. He added that Anguilar had obtained papers using a fake Colombian identity. Mexico’s security minister, Omar Garcia Harfunch, said Anguilar was “the subject of a red notice issued by Interpol and is linked to drug trafficking, extortion, and homicide”. Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro described him as “one of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55569,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55567\/revisions\/55569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}