Leader of Ecuador's Los Lobos crime group arrested in Mexico City

By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY, March ‌18 (Reuters) - A leader ​of Ecuador’s ​Los Lobos crime group was arrested at Mexico City’s international airport, authorities said on Wednesday, in what regional officials called a significant blow to criminal ‌networks spanning Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador.

Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg identified the ⁠man as Angel Esteban Aguilar, who is wanted in connection with the 2023 assassination of Ecuadorean presidential candidate ‌Fernando Villavicencio, a vocal critic ‌of corruption and organized crime.

The suspect, known by the alias "Lobo Menor," was the subject of an Interpol red notice and is linked to drug trafficking, extortion and homicide, Mexican ​Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said in a post on X.

Mexican authorities said they tracked him in real-time upon his arrival in the country, where he attempted to ⁠use a fake Colombian identity under the name Juan Carlos Montero. Reimberg said he had planned to flee to Mexico.

TRILATERAL ​EFFORTS

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said the arrest followed a manhunt in Colombia and was a result of trilateral cooperation between Mexico, Colombia and ​Ecuador.

"This result represents a significant blow against transnational ‌organized crime and confirms the effectiveness of trilateral cooperation between Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico in the fight against multi-crime networks," Petro said, adding ⁠that the arrest was made for extradition purposes.

Mexican authorities said they were communicating with the Colombian government over legal and immigration requirements.

Petro described the suspect as one of Ecuador's most wanted criminals, with links ⁠to Mexican cartels and the leader of the largest dissident branch of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces ​of Colombia (FARC), known by the alias Ivan Mordisco.

Washington designated Los Lobos a foreign terrorist organization in September last year.

The case unfolds against a backdrop of regional tensions over drug trafficking, with Ecuador imposing hefty ‌tariffs on Colombian goods, accusing it of not doing enough to stop drug trafficking around their shared border.

Earlier this month, U.S. President ‌Donald Trump gathered a raft of right-wing-aligned Latin American presidents to a summit in Florida known as "Shield ⁠of the Americas" where leaders agreed ‌to prioritize military tactics against ​organized crime.

The leaders of Mexico and Colombia were absent from the summit.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Writing by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Sarah Morland and ‌Howard Goller)

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