Ecuador approves extradition of alleged drug gang lieutenant Topo to US

Ecuador’s top court approved the extradition of Dario Penafiel, known as Topo, sending one of the alleged top operators of Los Choneros toward U.S. drug and gun charges as Quito deepens its cooperation with Washington against organized crime.

The National Court of Justice said it had received diplomatic assurances from the United States before authorizing the transfer on April 22. Penafiel was arrested in September 2025 in Ecuador’s Amazon region, where authorities said he was believed to be coordinating illegal mineral extraction while remaining in touch with a dissident faction of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas. A New York court wants him on large-scale drug-trafficking and firearms charges.

Penafiel’s case reflects how Ecuador’s criminal economy has fused cocaine trafficking, illegal gold mining, prison power and cross-border violence into a single web. Authorities describe Los Choneros as Ecuador’s oldest criminal organization and one of its most powerful. Local reporting says Penafiel met Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, inside a prison in Guayaquil, rose to become his right-hand man and later moved into illegal gold extraction after his release.

The extradition also highlights a significant shift in Ecuador’s legal and political posture. The country changed its framework to allow extraditions as President Daniel Noboa’s government moved more aggressively against gangs that have turned ports, prisons and remote mining zones into revenue streams. The transfer comes less than a year after Fito, whose full name is José Adolfo Macías Villamar, was extradited from Ecuador to the United States in July 2025.

Penafiel’s record suggests the state has long struggled to hold him. One report said he had previously been imprisoned in Ecuador for kidnapping and criminal conspiracy, later released after serving part of his sentence. Another said a murder case tied to the killing of a police officer was dismissed.

For Quito, the question is whether sending Topo to New York marks a real break with the era of impunity or only removes one node from a deeper network. Los Choneros and their allies still profit from the routes that move cocaine north through Ecuador toward U.S. and European markets, and the same corridors now feed illegal mining and armed violence in the Amazon. The extradition may disrupt a commander, but it does not by itself dismantle the machinery that made him valuable.