The leader of the Ecuadorian drug trafficking gang Los Lobos is captured in Spain

The leader of one of Ecuador’s largest drug gangs has been captured in an operation involving Spanish police, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa said.

Wilmer “Pipo” Chavarría, head of Los Lobos, was arrested in the city of Malaga, according to the Spanish National Police.

President Noboa said Chavarría had faked his own death, changed his identity and gone into hiding in Europe while continuing to control criminal operations in Ecuador, including illegal mining and ordering assassinations.

His family had claimed in 2021 that he had died of a heart attack due to Covid.

Both Ecuador and the United States have designated Los Lobos as a terrorist organization.

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Los Lobos is estimated to have 8,000 members and is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Ecuador.

In June 2024, the US Treasury sanctioned the gang, describing it as a group with “thousands of members” that had contributed significantly to the increase in violence in Ecuador.

Violence and murders have soared in Ecuador in recent years as it has become a major cocaine trafficking hub and rival gangs compete for control. It does not produce the drug, but it is located next to important drug-producing countries such as Peru and Colombia.

President Noboa has defined his presidency through harsh military repression against criminal gangs.

The high-profile arrest coincides with a referendum in Ecuador on whether the constitution should be changed to allow foreign military bases in the country again.

The United States maintained one on Ecuador’s Pacific coast until 2009, when then-leftist President Rafael Correa did not renew it and constitutionally banned them.

United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem recently visited military facilities in Ecuador.

President Noboa told the BBC earlier this year that he wanted the US and European militaries to join his “war” against what he called “narco-terrorists.”

The United States is expanding its military operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. It has deployed troops and a naval strike force centered around the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford to the region.

Additionally, it has carried out at least 20 attacks against suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean, killing at least 80 people.

It has not yet provided evidence about the people who were on board and some lawyers have argued that the attacks could violate international law.

Many members of Los Lobos are in prison and the gang is believed to have instigated some of Ecuador’s bloodiest prison riots.

The gang is believed to have ties to the powerful Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel in Mexico.