THE leader of Ecuador’s most notorious drug trafficking organisation has been arrested on the Costa del Sol following a joint operation with Spanish police
Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre, known as ‘Pipo’, is accused of ordering more than 400 deaths as the head of Los Lobos, a violent drug gang recently proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
He was detained in Malaga over the weekend after a coordinated investigation between Ecuador’s national police and Spain’s Policia Nacional.
Announcing the arrest on X, Ecuador president Daniel Noboa said: “Today we captured ‘Pipo’ Chavarria, the most wanted criminal in the region and top leader of Los Lobos.
“I recognise and thank the joint efforts of Ecuadorian and Spanish police. To combat transnational crime, international cooperation is a necessity.
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“We have captured the highest-value target. Today the mafias fall back. Today Ecuador wins.”
Noboa said Chavarria oversaw illegal mining operations and drug trafficking routes in collaboration with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a notoriously violent Mexican criminal syndicate.
Ecuador’s defence minister, John Reimberg, said that Chavarria had ordered ‘at least 400 murders’ from inside El Turi jail, where he directed operations between 2011 and 2019.
In 2021, the narco kingpin reportedly faked his own death before obtaining a new identity in Venezuela.
He later registered for and obtained a Colombian passport, which he used to travel to Spain in 2022.
While in Spain, Chavarria is believed to have continued managing Los Lobos’ international activities, forging ties with criminal groups in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as with allied cartels across Latin America.
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Los Lobos have been linked to drug trafficking, illegal gold mining and providing armed support to CJNG to secure key cocaine routes.
They were designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States in September 2024, with the US Treasury Department accusing the group of fuelling an uptick in violence across Ecuador, once considered one of Latin America’s safest countries.
Authorities suspect Los Lobos of involvement in the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito, less than two weeks before elections in 2023.
During his campaign, Villavicencio had called Ecuador a ‘narco state’ due to a rise in gang-related violence.
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