The National Police of Ecuador have launched a search for the former beauty queen daughter and a niece of a jailed gang leader who were allegedly kidnapped under the orders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico’s two most powerful criminal organizations.
A surveillance camera shows the daughter of Los Choneros leader José Macías, 19-year-old Michelle Macías, struggling with one of her captors before she was shoved into the kidnappers’ getaway vehicle outside a beauty school in the port city of Manta on Wednesday evening.
The second victim has been identified as 21-year-old María Villavicencio.
Their whereabouts remained unknown as of Friday afternoon.
Michelle Macías was kidnapped Wednesday while leaving a beauty school in Manta, Ecuador. The 19-year-old is the daughter of jailed gang leader José 'El Fito' Macías, whose gang, Los Choneros, is linked to the Sinaloa Cartel
The National Police of Ecuador located the vehicle that was used in the kidnapping of Michelle Macías, daughter of Los Choneros gang leader José 'El Fito' Macías
María Villavicencio, 21 (pictured), the niece of Ecuadorian gang leader José 'El Fito' Macías was kidnapped along with her uncle's daughter, Michelle Macías, on Wednesday night in Manta
Surveillance video shows Michelle Macías struggling with one of her captors before she and her cousin were kidnapped Wednesday in Ecuador
Witnesses told authorities that saw Michelle Macías and Villavicencio being taken from the car that was used in the abduction and placed in another vehicle.
The car was set on fire by the kidnappers, who later forced Michelle Macías and Villavicencio into a speedboat and escaped.
Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio reported Friday that the kidnappings were a direct order from Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, the leader the Jalisco New Generation, for whom
