In a dramatic turn that reverberated from South America to Europe, Ecuador’s most notorious criminal kingpin, Wilmer Geovanny Chavarría Barré—better known as “Pipo”—was captured on November 16, 2025, in Málaga, Spain. The arrest, orchestrated through a joint effort between Ecuador’s National Police and Spanish authorities, delivers a rare but resounding blow to the transnational criminal networks that have plunged Ecuador into unprecedented violence and instability.
Chavarría, who led the feared Los Lobos cartel, was considered the region’s most wanted fugitive. According to President Daniel Noboa, “We have captured the highest-value target. Today the mafias retreat. Today Ecuador wins.” The president’s triumphant announcement on X (formerly Twitter) captured the sense of victory within Ecuador’s embattled government, which has struggled to contain the spiraling influence of organized crime.
Yet the story behind Pipo’s downfall is as complex—and chilling—as the criminal empire he built. According to The Latin Times, Chavarría is believed responsible for at least 400 deaths, orchestrating assassinations, illegal gold mining, and international narcotics trafficking with the backing of Mexico’s Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), one of the world’s most powerful drug cartels.
The kingpin’s path to infamy began long before his European hideout. After serving a prison sentence in Ecuador from 2011 to 2019, Chavarría faked his own death in 2021, with his family claiming he had succumbed to a heart attack brought on by Covid. The ruse was elaborate: Pipo underwent as many as seven facial surgeries, adopting a new identity to evade law enforcement. He then resurfaced in Europe—first in Dubai, then Spain—where he continued to manage his criminal operations, ordering hits and overseeing drug shipments that snaked through the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Mexico, and Colombia.
But how did Ecuador, once a relatively peaceful neighbor to Colombia and Peru, become the epicenter of such ruthless criminal activity? Professor Rita Floyd, an expert in international security and ethics at the University of Birmingham, told The Sun that the answer lies partly in the regional fallout from Colombia’s peace process with FARC rebels. “The reasons for the rise in organised crime are complex, but central to this development has been neighbouring Colombia’s peace negotiations with the FARC rebel group. Dissident groups moved into Ecuador. This proved to be an ideal place for global drug trading,” she explained. With its dollarized economy, bustling ports, and strategic shipping routes—Ecuador is a major banana exporter, and cocaine is often hidden in fruit crates—the country quickly became a hub for narcotrafficking.
The Los Lobos cartel, which began as a group of hitmen for their now-rival gang Los Choneros, capitalized on these conditions. After a bloody split in 2020, Los Lobos evolved into an organization specializing in drug trafficking, illegal mining, and contract killings. According to Infobae, the group now boasts over 8,000 members operating in 16 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces. Their reach is global: Los Lobos have forged alliances with not only Mexican cartels but also Albanian criminal factions, who smuggle cocaine into the UK—now Europe’s largest cocaine market and the world’s second highest for cocaine use.
“Eastern European criminals operate in Ecuador. So in effect the state is being hijacked by transnational organised crime,” Professor Floyd noted. The consequences have been devastating. Ecuador’s murder rate soared to 50 per 100,000 inhabitants, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Violence inspired by Mexican cartels—such as grisly executions and bodies hung from bridges—has become disturbingly common. In October 2024, Scottish gangster Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson was jailed for his role in smuggling £100 million of cocaine from Ecuador to the UK, hidden in banana boxes.
The violence has not been contained to the streets. Ecuador’s prisons are virtually controlled by gangs, with Los Lobos and their rivals orchestrating some of the bloodiest riots in the country’s history. In 2023, a dispute between Los Lobos and Los Choneros at the Litoral Penitentiary left 123 inmates dead—the deadliest prison riot Ecuador has ever seen. The following year, at least 44 more inmates died and more than 100 escaped after a riot at Bellavista prison. The gangs’ grip on the penal system is so strong that, according to The Sun, even the transfer of key members can spark nationwide violence. After Los Tiguerones, an ally of Los Lobos, and Los Lobos members were moved out of Litoral Penitentiary, a fresh wave of violence erupted: two headless bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Esmeraldas, eight prison guards were taken hostage, nine car bombs exploded, and five police officers were shot dead.
Los Lobos’ notoriety reached new heights in August 2023, when the cartel was implicated in the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The politician, an outspoken critic of organized crime’s ties to politics, was gunned down in a killing that shocked the nation. In 2024, five men—two of them alleged Los Lobos members—were sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for their roles in the murder.
Faced with this wave of terror, President Noboa has responded with a military crackdown since taking office in 2023. The government declared a state of emergency, and in 2024, the US government sanctioned Los Lobos for their role in international drug trafficking and violence. Noboa has also pushed for constitutional changes to allow foreign military bases back into Ecuador—a move that coincides with Pipo’s arrest and is currently the subject of a national referendum. “Some wrote him off as dead; we hunted him down in his very own hell. That’s the difference when there’s the will to fight for your country,” Noboa declared on X.
Despite the government’s celebration, experts caution that the arrest, while symbolically significant, is unlikely to dismantle Ecuador’s criminal networks overnight. “It is symbolically significant. It shows that these people are not beyond the pale. It shows tenacity on the part of police,” Professor Floyd told The Sun. “However, it won’t make much of a dent into what the gangs are doing. They are far bigger than one individual. Los Lobos and other gangs are supported by powerful Mexican cartels. So, they won’t disappear.”
Indeed, Ecuador has seen other high-profile arrests—such as that of José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito,” leader of Los Choneros, who was captured in June 2025 and extradited to the US the following month. Yet the homicide rate continues to climb, and the underlying conditions that fuel organized crime—poverty, corruption, and international demand for narcotics—remain largely unaddressed. As Professor Floyd noted, “So far, the impact is not there. The homicide rate is increasing year on year. However, Bukele’s regime in El Salvador shows that drastic measures can work. Still, they do not deal with the root causes of the problems.”
As Ecuador grapples with this new era of transnational crime, Pipo’s arrest stands as a milestone in the country’s ongoing struggle—a testament to both the reach of criminal empires and the resolve of those who seek to bring them down.
