Fugitive wanted for murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate in 2023 arrested in Mexico

A man wanted in Colombia and Ecuador for the murder of the Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito in 2023 was arrested in Mexico and transferred to Colombia, authorities said Wednesday.

Ángel Esteban Aguilar Morales, an Ecuadorian national, arrived in Bogotá on Wednesday, where he was intercepted at the El Dorado airport by Colombian immigration authorities. No details were immediately provided about his immigration status or whether he was formally extradited.

Aguilar, known as “Lobo Menor”, is one of the alleged ringleaders of the Ecuadorian criminal gang “Los Lobos” and one of the country’s most wanted fugitives, subject to an Interpol Red Notice, a global alert used to locate fugitives around the world. In September, Los Lobos was designated terrorist organization by the United States.

Mexican authorities said Aguilar was detected by authorities the moment he entered the country, so he was placed under real-time surveillance. Later, using intelligence provided by Colombia, authorities said they obtained information that allowed them to determine his location in Mexico City.

Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch posted an image of Aguilar in X after the arrest.

The arrest in Mexico, which authorities said was carried out without the “use of violence,” resulted in Aguilar being taken into custody of the National Immigration Institute to determine his legal status within the country, security officials said, without specifying whether he had been deported.

“The individual was trying to evade immigration controls using a false identity as a Colombian citizen,” the Colombian immigration agency said in a statement.

In April 2024, Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Ecuador following a military raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito. The operation targeted former Vice President Jorge Glas, a corruption suspect who had been seeking asylum there since late 2023.

Representatives from Colombia’s Foreign Ministry and Colombia’s migration agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Colombian police, Aguilar entered Mexico from Medellín, Colombia, using a falsified passport with the “express purpose of strengthening criminal networks in the region.”

In X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro highlighted police cooperation between Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, calling it “a significant blow against transnational organized crime.”

In February, the Attorney General’s Office of Ecuador presented new evidence that sought to formally link three people – including Aguilar – to the Villavicencio case. These individuals allegedly played a logistical and operational role in the murder on August 9, 2023, when the then presidential candidate was leaving a political rally in the northern sector of the capital.

In addition to the Villavicencio case, police indicated that “Lobo Menor” allegedly has ties to Mexican cartels and to Néstor Gregorio Vera, known as Iván Mordisco, leader of a dissident faction of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a guerrilla group, whose members did not adhere to a peace agreement signed with the Colombian government in 2016.

Last year, another Los Lobos leader was arrested at his home in the coastal city of Portoviejo. Carlos D, widely known by his alias “El Chino,” was second in command of Los Lobos and “considered a high-value target,” the Armed Forces said in a statement.

In 2024, the The United States declared Los Lobos to be the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador. In announcing sanctions against Los Lobos, U.S. officials said the gang “contributes significantly to the violence plaguing the country” and that its network includes thousands of members backed by Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, making the gang particularly dangerous.

Criminal gang violence continues unabated in Ecuador after the recapture in June 2025 of the country’s largest drug trafficker, Adolfo Maciaswho leads the Los Choneros gang, following his escape from a maximum security prison in 2024. In July 2025, the Ecuadorian government Macías was extradited to the United States, where he faces multiple charges of drug and firearms trafficking.