ISTANBUL

Ecuadorian authorities apprehended a top leader of the Los Lobos drug trafficking organization, a highly sought criminal who had faked his death and was hiding in Europe, President Daniel Noboa said on Sunday.

Noboa identified the captured leader as Wilmer "Pipo" Chavarria, who allegedly changed his identity and fled the country.

Chavarria is accused of ordering murders in Ecuador, controlling illegal mining operations, and managing key drug routes in cooperation with Mexico's Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel.

Interior Minister John Reimberg said Chavarria is responsible for at least 400 deaths.

Police chief Pablo Vinicio Davila Maldonado said the operation took place in Malaga, Spain.

According to Noboa, authorities successfully hunted down Chavarria despite reports of him dead in 2021.

He thanked the joint efforts of the Ecuadorian and Spanish National Police, calling international cooperation "a necessity" to combat transnational crime.

"We have captured the highest-value target. Today the mafias fall back. Today Ecuador wins," he said.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau congratulated Ecuador for capturing "one of the most notorious organized crime figures in Latin America."

Landau said if governments are not actively fighting crime, "it's because they're complicit.

Los Lobos, which is linked to the US-designated terrorist organizations Cartel de Sinaloa and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, was designated by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in September.

The US cited the group for attacking public officials, security personnel, and journalists in Ecuador as part of its goal to control drug trafficking routes through the country.