The National Police of Ecuador have launched a search for the former beauty queen daughter and a niece of a jailed gang leader who were allegedly kidnapped under the orders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico’s two most powerful criminal organizations.
A surveillance camera shows the daughter of Los Choneros leader José Macías, 19-year-old Michelle Macías, struggling with one of her captors before she was shoved into the kidnappers’ getaway vehicle outside a beauty school in the port city of Manta on Wednesday evening.
The second victim has been identified as 21-year-old María Villavicencio.
They were still unknown on Friday afternoon.
Michelle Macías was kidnapped Wednesday while leaving a beauty school in Manta, Ecuador. The 19-year-old is the daughter of jailed gang leader José ‘El Fito’ Macías, whose gang, Los Choneros, is linked to the Sinaloa Cartel
The National Police of Ecuador located the vehicle that was used in the kidnapping of Michelle Macías, daughter of Los Choneros gang leader José ‘El Fito’ Macías
María Villavicencio, 21 (pictured), the niece of Ecuadorian gang leader José ‘El Fito’ Macías was kidnapped along with her uncle’s daughter, Michelle Macías, on Wednesday night in Manta
Surveillance video shows Michelle Macías struggling with one of her captors before she and her cousin were kidnapped Wednesday in Ecuador
Witnesses told authorities that saw Michelle Macías and Villavicencio being taken from the car that was used in the abduction and placed in another vehicle.
The car was set on fire by the kidnappers, who later forced Michelle Macías and Villavicencio into a speedboat and escaped.
Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio reported Friday that the kidnappings were a direct order from Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, the leader the Jalisco New Generation, for whom the U.S. government is offering a $10 million bounty.
According to a leaflet distributed around Guayaquil’s notorious Litoral Penitentiary (Guayaquil), the cartel claimed responsibility for abductions.
However, most of the prison is under the influence of Macías’ rival gang, Los Choneros.
The group controls five of the Litoral Penitentiary’s 12 pavilions and is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel, the Mexican organization co-founded by El Chapo.
According to reports, the gang was involved in the murder of 68 prisoners at the prison last weekend.
José ‘El Fito’ Macías – Michelle’s uncle – is one of the two leaders of Los Choneros, a gang linked to Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel
DEA is offering $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, who reportedly ordered the kidnapping of the rival gang leader’s daughter
A source with knowledge of the incident told digital news outlet Infobae that the kidnappings of El Fito’s daughter and niece may have also been in carried out as revenge for the murder of the 15-year-old daughter of the Los Lobos gang’s leader, who is known as ‘El Sargento.’
The child’s killing was allegedly ordered by El Fito and his associate Alexander ‘Junior’ Roldan.
DailyMail.com was not able to confirm Los Lobos’ alliance with the Jalisco Old Generation Cartel. They do control one pavilion at Litoral Penitentiary.
Michelle Macías’s kidnapping in Ecuador was reportedly ordered by Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, leader of Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Her father, José ‘El Fito’ Macías, is the leader Los Choneros, a gang that controls most of the notorious Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil and is allied with the Sinaloa Cartel
El Comercio said that El Fito has been kept in constant touch with the Police Anti-Kidnapping and Extortion Unit, which has helped to rescue his daughter.
Ecuador provides a rich ground for drug supply to Mexico, Europe, and other countries, according to Mexican organisations such as Jalisco New Generation Cartel or Sinaloa Cartel.
Ecuador has been hit hard by violence in its 39,000-caparisons.
Guillermo Lasso, President of the United States, has blamed the Mexican criminal groups.