Leader of Ecuador's Los Lobos drug trafficking gang arrested in Spain

QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuador has arrested the leader of one of the country's biggest drug trafficking gangs, Los Lobos, in an operation with Spanish police, President Daniel Noboa said on Sunday.

Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre, known as "Pipo," helms a powerful group that the U.S. in September designated a foreign terrorist organization, along with its rival, Los Choneros.

Noboa said Chavarria had controlled illegal mining operations and drug routes with Mexico's Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and had faked his death, changed his identity and hidden in Europe while ordering murders in Ecuador.

"Some gave him up for dead; we searched for him in his very own hell," Noboa said in a social media post, thanking the Spanish police for collaborating on a capture that Ecuador's police chief said took place in Malaga.

Interior Minister John Reimberg said in a separate social media post that Chavarria was responsible for at least 400 deaths, and had managed criminal operations from prison between 2011 and 2019.

Noboa has pursued a militarization strategy to crack down on worsening gang violence in a country that was once considered one of the safest in Latin America. Analysts say the capture of ringleaders has sparked more violence and killings as criminal groups battle for power.

Ecuadoreans vote on Sunday over whether to allow the return of foreign military bases in the South American country, which Noboa says are central to fighting organized crime.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Paul Simao)