Suspected Comandos de la Frontera leader wanted in Ecuador captured in Colombia

An Ecuadorian man accused of leading part of the Comandos de la Frontera was captured in Colombia after a joint operation by the two countries’ police forces. He was detained in Puerto Asís, in the Colombian department of Putumayo, which borders Ecuador.

Ecuadorian Interior Minister John Reimberg said the suspect, known by the alias “Alejo,” had an active Interpol red notice. Ecuador considers him a high-value target and had issued an arrest warrant over the alleged extortion kidnapping of a hotel owner in Sucumbíos province in 2019. The victim remains missing.

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This subject used a double identity, Ecuadorian and Colombian, to move around and conceal his criminal record.

“This subject used a double identity, Ecuadorian and Colombian, to move around and conceal his criminal record,” Reimberg wrote on X. Ecuadorian police say Alejo allegedly headed a support network for residual Comandos de la Frontera structures and exercised “illicit control over river corridors of the Putumayo River.” Authorities describe those waterways as strategic routes for drug transport and other organized criminal activities.

Reimberg said the suspect had been placed in the custody of Ecuadorian justice authorities for legal proceedings. The capture comes as Ecuador and Colombia deepen military ties and prepare operations with the United States against criminal gangs and drug-trafficking mafias active in the border zones of the two South American countries.

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illicit control over river corridors of the Putumayo River