Ecuador’s most wanted man and leader of the Los Choneros gang, Jose Adolfo Macias, was captured on Wednesday, according to the country’s President Daniel Noboa.

A year and a half after his prison escape, José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar was found hiding in a secret basement in the coastal city of Manta.

Macías, also known by the alias "Fito", leads Los Choneros, a powerful criminal gang blamed for Ecuador's transformation from tourist haven to a country with horrendous murder rate