<p>Quito: Ecuador's "most-wanted prisoner", the leader of the Los Choneros criminal group, disappeared from the jail where he was being held, authorities said on Sunday and launched an operation to locate him.</p><p>General Cesar Zapata, the national commander of police, told a press conference that the country's armed forces had determined that one of the inmates in the Guayaquil prison was missing.</p><p>While Zapata did not mention the inmate by name, the prosecutor's office said it would investigate "the alleged escape" of Jose Adolfo Macias, the leader of Los Choneros.</p>.<p>Macias, whose alias is "Fito", was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes including drug trafficking and murder.</p><p>Los Choneros is a criminal organisation authority linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes, and accused of controlling the country's main prisons.</p><p>"We're grateful for the courage and commitment of the law enforcement forces, who, in an operation involving more than 3,000 people, have intervened in the prison in search of the most-wanted prisoner," said presidential spokesman Roberto Izurieta at the press conference.</p><p>Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuador's overcrowded prisons and official numbers show more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.</p>
<p>Quito: Ecuador's "most-wanted prisoner", the leader of the Los Choneros criminal group, disappeared from the jail where he was being held, authorities said on Sunday and launched an operation to locate him.</p><p>General Cesar Zapata, the national commander of police, told a press conference that the country's armed forces had determined that one of the inmates in the Guayaquil prison was missing.</p><p>While Zapata did not mention the inmate by name, the prosecutor's office said it would investigate "the alleged escape" of Jose Adolfo Macias, the leader of Los Choneros.</p>.<p>Macias, whose alias is "Fito", was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes including drug trafficking and murder.</p><p>Los Choneros is a criminal organisation authority linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes, and accused of controlling the country's main prisons.</p><p>"We're grateful for the courage and commitment of the law enforcement forces, who, in an operation involving more than 3,000 people, have intervened in the prison in search of the most-wanted prisoner," said presidential spokesman Roberto Izurieta at the press conference.</p><p>Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuador's overcrowded prisons and official numbers show more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.</p>