The National Court has given the green light for the extradition to Ecuador of Wilmer Chavarría, known as 'Pipo', alleged leader of Los Lobos, the country's most powerful criminal gang. The purpose is for him to serve a 16-year prison sentence for three homicides committed during a shootout following a bank robbery in 2010. The decision, made at the end of July, comes after magistrates rejected his extradition to the United States, which sought him for drug trafficking.
Chavarría was arrested in November 2025 in Málaga, where he had arrived in 2022 from Colombia using a false identity, after faking his death in Ecuador. He reportedly underwent seven facial surgeries to avoid recognition. Last February, he was questioned in the prison of Zaragoza at the request of the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office regarding the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023, stating that the crime was ordered by the current Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa.
The events for which the National Court now agrees to his handover occurred on the morning of July 3, 2010, in Ecuador. According to documentation submitted by Ecuadorian authorities, the defendant and two others assaulted a bank branch, taking $38,000. Following the robbery, a police chase resulted in a shootout, causing three deaths.
An Ecuadorian court sentenced Chavarría to 16 years in prison in 2010, of which he served over 11. However, eleven years later, in September 2021, another court declared the sentence extinct based on a supposed death certificate. It was later revealed that the document used for the death registration was false, thus annulling the sentence extinction.
During the extradition hearing in June, the Prosecutor's Office supported the handover, while the defense opposed it, alleging a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in Ecuador and danger to his life. The court requested supplementary information from Ecuador regarding the remaining sentence time (almost five years) and the penitentiary guarantees. Ecuador provided details on its regulations for the rights and guarantees of detained persons, as well as specific actions to ensure the rights to life and personal integrity of prisoners, which the National Court deemed "sufficient guarantees".
