Colombia Holds Ecuador Gang Boss’s Wife, Daughter in US$25M Laundering Case
COLOMBIA · ECUADOR · ORGANISED CRIME
Key Facts
- —The country Ecuador, Colombia’s southern neighbour of about 18 million people, uses the US dollar and has become a main exit route for cocaine. Gang wars over that trade have made it one of Latin America’s most violent countries.
- —The background José Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito”, led Los Choneros, one of Ecuador’s most powerful gangs. His prison escape in January 2024 set off a national security crisis; he now faces drug charges in New York.
- —Why now Ecuadorian prosecutors are pursuing his family’s money. In June 2026 a judge ordered Interpol red notices, international wanted alerts, for relatives who had fled.
- —What happened On Sunday 27 September 2026, Colombian authorities detained his wife and daughter in Sabana de Torres, a town in the north-eastern department of Santander.
- —The numbers The laundering case involves about US$25 million. Investigators say the wife had US$1.3 million in unexplained income over five years, and the daughter US$435,900.
- —What it means for you Colombia, Ecuador and the FBI are now working together against gang finances, not only gunmen. One family company in the case had also won small state contracts.
- —Still open Neither woman has been convicted. The date and legal route of their transfer to Ecuador have not been announced.
Colombian authorities have detained the wife and daughter of Ecuador’s best-known gang leader, who is awaiting trial in the United States. Both women are wanted in Ecuador in a money-laundering case worth about US$25 million.
President Abelardo de la Espriella said he would send them to Ecuador “with pleasure”. The arrest was a joint operation with Ecuador’s police and the FBI.
What happened in Santander
The two women are Inda Mariela Peñarrieta Tuárez and Michelle Jamileth Macías Peñarrieta. They were detained in Sabana de Torres, a farming town near the city of Bucaramanga.
De la Espriella said both were held on Interpol red notices, “required by the Ecuadorian justice system for money laundering”. Colombia’s police, army and Attorney General’s Office took part, with the FBI and Ecuadorian authorities.
Ecuador’s Interior Minister, John Reimberg, announced the arrests first. He called the women “high-value targets” who had been fugitives “until today”.
“I will send them with pleasure to my good friend, President Daniel Noboa, so that they answer to Ecuadorian justice,” De la Espriella wrote on X. “Colombia will not be a refuge for the finances of transnational crime.”
Who Fito is
José Adolfo Macías Villamar was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years for crimes including murder and drug trafficking. From prison he rose to lead Los Choneros, one of the country’s oldest and most feared gangs.
On 7 January 2024 he vanished from a prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. Riots and attacks followed, and President Daniel Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” against the gangs.
Security forces found him in June 2025 in an underground bunker near the port city of Manta. In July 2025 he became the first Ecuadorian extradited to the United States, according to Ecuador’s prison authorities.
In a Brooklyn federal court he faces seven counts, including international cocaine trafficking and firearms offences. He pleaded not guilty; his lawyer said on 18 September that plea talks are under way.
Washington designated Los Choneros a foreign terrorist organisation in September 2025. The Rio Times has reported on recent raids against the gang’s finances inside Ecuador.
The money-laundering case
Ecuador’s prosecutors call the case “Blanqueo Fito”, or Fito Laundering. They say his family and associates moved money through companies between 2020 and 2024.
In March 2026 a judge sent 17 people and four companies to trial, among them Fito, his wife and his children. At the May verdict, the court put the total harm to the state at about US$25 million.
Ecuador’s financial intelligence unit found US$1.3 million in unexplained income for Peñarrieta. Her daughter received US$435,900 while declaring perfume sales as her business, according to the newspaper Primicias.
One company at the centre of the case is Queenwater, a bottled-water firm in Manta that Peñarrieta owns and manages. Prosecutors say 68 percent of its income from 2020 to 2024 came in cash.
In May 2026 a court convicted six people and two companies, including Queenwater, which it ordered wound up. Most of the six received ten years in prison, and 46 seized properties go to a state agency.
Not the first arrest abroad
In January 2024, days after Fito’s escape, Argentina detained his wife and several of his children in Córdoba. They were expelled to Ecuador and freed within hours, because no Ecuadorian warrant existed then.
The laundering case changed that. In June 2026 a judge ordered red notices for the wife, the daughter and other accused relatives.
The daughter performs as a singer under the name Queen Michelle. In 2023 she released a song in which her father appeared from prison.
What comes next
Colombia must now process Ecuador’s request before the women can be handed over. Officials have not said whether that will be extradition or a faster expulsion. Reimberg said both would go to La Roca, a maximum-security prison for women in Guayaquil.
The arrest fits a pattern under De la Espriella, who took office in August. Days earlier, Colombia sent an armed-group boss to the United States to face drug charges.
The detentions are not a verdict. Both women are accused, not convicted, and will be able to contest the charges in an Ecuadorian court.
Nor do they reach Los Choneros’ operations directly. The gang survived its leader’s extradition, and the case in Brooklyn is still unresolved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Fito?
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, is the former leader of Los Choneros, one of Ecuador’s most powerful gangs. He escaped prison in January 2024, was recaptured in June 2025 and was extradited to the United States in July 2025.
Why were his wife and daughter arrested in Colombia?
They were wanted in Ecuador in a money-laundering case, known as Blanqueo Fito, and were subject to Interpol red notices. Colombian authorities detained them in Sabana de Torres, Santander, on 27 September 2026.
Have they been convicted?
No. They are among the accused in the case, but six other people were convicted in May 2026 while the two women were fugitives.
What happens to them now?
Colombia’s president has said they will be sent to Ecuador to face its courts. The date and the legal route have not been announced.
Sources: Primicias, 27 September 2026, Metro Ecuador, with the statements of President De la Espriella and Minister Reimberg, 27 September 2026, Caracol Radio, 27 September 2026, Extra, 27 September 2026, Primicias, on the Blanqueo Fito verdict and Queenwater, 22 September 2026, El Diario, on the US case, 18 September 2026, US State Department, terrorist designations of Los Choneros and Los Lobos (press release), September 2025, Al Jazeera, timeline of the January 2024 crisis, 10 January 2024, Las Vegas Sun, with AP reporting on the recapture, 30 June 2025. All retrieved 27 September 2026. Ecuador uses the US dollar, so all amounts are in dollars.
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