Ecuador Gang Leader Wanted for Presidential Candidate’s Murder Arrested in Mexico

Mexican authorities have captured Ángel Esteban Aguilar Morales, also known as Lobo Menor (“Little Wolf”), a top member of Ecuador’s notorious drug cartel Los Lobos. Aguilar was wanted in connection with the 2023 assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said Aguilar had been using a false Colombian identity and was on an Interpol red notice for drug trafficking, extortion, and homicide. Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch confirmed his arrest in Mexico City.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro described Aguilar as “one of the world’s most notorious assassins” and hailed the arrest as a major success for trilateral cooperation between Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico against organized crime.

Villavicencio, a former journalist and anti-corruption campaigner, was shot dead in Quito in August 2023. Several Los Lobos members, including Carlos Edwin Angulo, known as “The Invisible,” were convicted for the killing a year later.

Aguilar, previously sentenced to 20 years for another murder in 2013, reportedly fled after being granted parole.

Aguilar had been monitored by Ecuadorean and Colombian authorities across Medellín and Itaguí for two months before his capture.

He is one of several lieutenants under Los Lobos leader Wilmer “Pipo” Chavarría Barré, who faked his death before being caught in Spain in 2025.

Ecuador, located between Colombia and Peru the world’s largest cocaine producers has become a key transit country for illicit drugs.

The country’s government, under President Daniel Noboa, has increasingly aligned with the US to combat organized crime, with Los Lobos designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization last year for terrorizing communities.