Spain Courts Reject US Extradition Request for Ecuadorian Drug Gang Leader Wilmer Chavarría

The Spanish National Court (Audiencia Nacional) rejected the United States' request to extradite Wilmer Chavarría, alias “Pipo”, alleged leader of the Los Lobos criminal organization. The court ruled that the US accusation of cocaine trafficking was insufficiently precise, preventing compliance with the double‑incrimination and specialty principles required for extradition.

The United States alleged that Chavarría had coordinated shipments of cocaine from Ecuador to the United States since 2022, controlling ports and trafficking routes in South and Central America. However, the court noted that statements in the DEA affidavit referring to activities in 2023 fell outside the temporal scope of the request. Chavarría, captured in Málaga in November 2025, also faces a pending Ecuadorian extradition request for three murders tied to a 2010 bank robbery and for the killing of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.