Colombian police, prosecutors, the army and the FBI have arrested the wife and daughter of José Adolfo Macías, known as ‘Fito,’ the imprisoned leader of Ecuador’s powerful Los Choneros drug trafficking organization. The operation, carried out Sunday in the town of Sabana de Torres in Santander province, netted Inda Mariela Peñarrieta Tuárez and her daughter Michelle Jamilet Macías Peñarrieta as part of an investigation dubbed the ‘Fito Money Laundering Case.’
According to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, the two women had been living under a single false identity, alternately using a fake national ID card issued in the name Paola Zapata Ruiz to move between cities without raising suspicion. Investigators are still piecing together exactly how they entered the country and the route they followed once inside.
Before her arrest, Michelle Macías Peñarrieta cultivated a lavish public image on social media, boasting about offering million-dollar loans in US dollars through online platforms and posting photos from vacations in Paris. That online visibility, ironically, offered investigators a window into her whereabouts even as she tried to stay hidden.
The case underscores how relatives of major cartel figures sometimes seek refuge and financial cover in neighboring countries. For the full investigative report, including details from an officer involved in the raid, read the original story on El Tiempo’s website.
Source: Los movimientos secretos de la esposa y la hija del poderoso capo Fito en Colombia: se turnaban una cédula falsa (eltiempo.com).
Image: Archives New Zealand, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).