The leader of one of Ecuador's biggest drug-trafficking gangs has been captured in an operation involving Spanish police, Ecuador's president Daniel Noboa has said.

Wilmer "Pipo" Chavarria, the head of Los Lobos, was detained in the city of Malaga, according to Spain's National Police.

President Noboa said Chavarria had faked his own death, changed his identity and hidden in Europe while continuing to control criminal operations in Ecuador, including illegal mining and ordering murders.

His family had claimed in 2021 that he had died from a heart attack due to Covid.

Both Ecuador and the US have designated Los Lobos (The Wolves) as a terrorist organisation.

In a post on X, Ecuador's interior minister John Reimberg, who said he was in Spain with police, said the capture of Chavarria was a "historic day" for his country.

Los Lobos is estimated to have 8,000 members and is one of the most powerful criminal organisations in Ecuador.

In June 2024, the US Treasury sanctioned the gang and described it as a group with "thousands of members" that had significantly contributed to the increase in violence in Ecuador.

Violence and murders have soared in Ecuador in recent years as it has become a major cocaine trafficking hub and rival gangs compete for control. It does not produce the drug, but sits next to major drug-producing countries such as Peru and Colombia.

President Noboa has defined his presidency through a tough military crackdown on criminal gangs.

The high-profile arrest coincides with a referendum in Ecuador on whether to change the constitution to allow foreign military bases in the country again.

The US held one on Ecuador's Pacific coast until 2009, when the left-wing president at the time Rafael Correa did not renew it and banned them constitutionally.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has recently toured military facilities in Ecuador.

President Noboa told the BBC earlier this year that he wanted US and European armies to join his "war" against what he called "narco-terrorists."

The US is expanding military operations in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. It has deployed troops and a naval strike force centred around the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the region.

Additionally, it has carried out at least 20 strikes on alleged narco-trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing at least 80 people.

It has not yet provided evidence about those on board and some lawyers have argued the strikes could breach international law.

Many Los Lobos members are in jail and the gang is thought to have instigated some of Ecuador's bloodiest prison riots.

The gang is thought to have links to the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel in Mexico.