The institutional solidity in Ecuador has been severely hit after the escape of one of the country's most powerful bosses from a maximum security prison on January 7, which shows the power that criminal groups play within the Ecuadorian political landscape. Protagonists in riots and prison massacres, attacks against the civilian population and extortion of the Judiciary, criminal gangs have the Ecuadorian State on the ropes. Who are they? Where do they operate? Who are your leaders? We explain it.
Violence in Ecuador has reached historic heights since the end of 2023, one of the bloodiest years in recent history in the country with 8,008 deaths recorded by the Government, double that of 2022 and four times the figure published in 2021. For According to experts, the origin of the extreme violent escalation lies within criminal groups.
After the newly arrived president, Daniel Noboa, decreed an “internal conflict” in Ecuadorian territory, the different criminal structures of the country have been exposed as those responsible for the security crisis that the South American country is going through, involved in a power vacuum within the prison system that has been filled by the leaders of different gangs, whose frictions have crossed the walls of the prisons.
Already classified as “terrorists” by the Ecuadorian Government, the existence of the main criminal groups in the country has been outlined by the Noboa Administration, exposing 22 criminal organizations as the most influential in Ecuador, as well as the targets to be “neutralized” in the state of emergency declared on January 9 by the president.
Born in marginalized regions and with alleged links to the most powerful Mexican cartels, the organizations designated by the Ecuadorian State as terrorists are: 'Águilas', 'ÁguilarKiller', 'AK47', 'Los Choneros', 'Corvichero', 'Dark Knights' ', 'ChoneKiller', 'Cubanos Fatales', 'Cuartel de las Feas', 'Gánster Kater', 'Piler Lagartos', 'Los Lobos', 'Latin Kings', 'Los Tiburones', 'Los p.27', 'Mafia Trébol', 'Mafia 18', 'Patrons', 'R7', 'Tiguerones'.
Although the list of now declared Ecuadorian “terrorist organizations” is long, there are three groups considered the pillars of drug trafficking and organized crime in Ecuador.
'Los Choneros', the head of Ecuadorian crime
Emerging in the 90's within Chone, a city in the coastal province of Manabí, 'Los Choneros' are the largest gang in Ecuador, with more than 12,000 members according to research by the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime (OECO), and they have a presence in around from 12 of the 24 Ecuadorian provinces, according to the OECS itself.
The organization is led by Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias 'Fito', who managed to consolidate his control over the gang between 2021 and 2023, after the death of two other leaders, alias 'Rasquiña' and alias 'JR', who divided the leadership of the gang. group by region, concentrating on the provinces of Guayas, Esmeralda, Santa Elena, El Oro and Los Ríos.
The reign of alias 'Fito' within 'Los Choneros' was challenged by his imprisonment in 2011, after being found guilty “for illicit activities such as robbery, drug trafficking, organized crime, possession of weapons and murder,” according to Guillaume Long, researcher at the Center for Economic and Political Research (CEPR), for the German media DW.
However, prison was nothing more than a new center of power for alias 'Fito'. Held in the Litoral Penitentiary, the leader of 'Los Choneros' managed to position the organization as the most powerful within the prison, accused of overpopulation, he took control of the illicit economy within the center and caused horrific prison massacres that They put the Ecuadorian prison system under international scrutiny.
“He is one of the ideologues of planning and ordering the largest massacres in Ecuador's prisons, to establish his position in the penal centers,” said Ricardo Sosa, an expert in Latin American organized crime, for DW.
The escape of alias 'Fito' before his transfer to La Roca, another maximum security prison in Ecuador, triggered an intensification of the State's aggressive stance against organized crime, which in turn provoked an intense violent response from the Ecuadorian gangs, which have threatened to retaliate against the military, the police and even the civilian population.
Linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, 'Los Choneros' control the main drug trafficking routes within the country, especially for the transit of cocaine to the United States and different countries in Europe, especially in the Balkan region.
'Los Lobos', leaders of 'The New Generation' of drug trafficking
Accused of having been responsible for the violent incursion into the headquarters of the TC Televisión channel on January 9, the 'Los Lobos' gang was born in 2019 within the province of Azuay, following a rupture within 'Los Choneros' with its founder Wilmer Chavarría, alias 'Pipo', having a criminal history within the gang currently headed by alias 'Fito'.
Rivaling with 'Los Choneros' for control of cocaine trafficking to the north, 'Los Lobos' have been linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a regional rival of the Sinaloa Cartel, in addition to having alleged ties to the 48th Front. , a dissident from the extinct Colombian FARC, according to the Ecuadorian media 'Primicias'. 'Los Lobos' businesses have extended to human trafficking, extortion and illegal mining.
The group also competes with those with the alias 'Fito' for control within the prisons. Having their center of operations in the Azuay Deprivation of Liberty Center, known as the Turi prison, 'Los Lobos' also have a presence in 12 pavilions of the Litoral Penitentiary, where fights with other minor criminal groups led to the beheading of 79 inmates in February 2021.
Concentrated in Azuay, the gang has spread throughout the east of Ecuadorian territory, with a greater presence in the regions of Chimborazo, Napo, Imbabura, Pichincha, Pastaza and Sucumbíos.
With around 8,000 members, according to Insight Crime investigations, 'Los Lobos' also heads a gang conglomerate called 'Nueva Generación', which included an alliance with the 'Chone Killers' and 'Los Tiguerones', although local media reports indicate that this alliance is going through one of its lowest moments.
'Los Lagartos', third in the fight
Overtaken in a short time by 'Los Lobos', 'Los Lagartos' have their origin in the prisons of Guayaquil more than ten years ago, according to Insight Crime reports, operating mainly as a hitman group that provides their services to larger criminal organizations. . They are attributed with the murder of television presenter Efraín Ruales, in 2021.
With a presence in Guayas and Santa Elena, according to OECS mapping, 'Los Lagartos' would also be a central piece in the numerous riots within Ecuadorian prisons in recent years, having a great weight in the 35 penitentiary centers of the country and being considered the toughest muscle of the gangs in prisons.
An essential part of the self-government of inmates within prisons, 'Los Lagartos' are one of the most exposed examples of the corruption and impunity that exists within Ecuadorian penitentiaries.
“Unprecedented corruption within prisons, which responds to the abandonment of the penitentiary system by the State for years, as well as the absence of a comprehensive criminal policy,” warned a report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). ) in 2021, in a document addressed to the Government of Guillermo Lasso.
Micro organizations form criminal alliances
A document published at the end of 2023 by the OECS highlights the participation of smaller criminal groups in the great criminal web within Ecuador, as well as the importance of their alliances with larger organizations and how these allow regional control of the big drug lords.
'Águilas', 'Fatales' and 'Gángster', all members of the list of 22 “terrorist organizations” published by the Noboa government, have been exposed as close allies of 'Los Choneros', which thanks to their links with Sinaloa and the media personality alias 'Fito', have created an attractive image for youth gangs in Ecuadorian urban centers.
On the other side are 'Los Tiburones', 'R7' and 'Mafia 18', lined up alongside 'Los Lobos' and denounced by the national police for having participated in prison riots and various attacks in Ecuadorian cities, including the detonation of police patrols and extortion of civilians.
Infiltrated in the government structures of the prison system, architects of advanced criminal organizational structures and exporters of criminal disputes between the north and the Mexican shoal, Ecuadorian gangs have absorbed great economic, military and even political power in recent years.
Threatened by the recently proposed 'Phoenix Plan' of the Noboa Administration, which proposes extradition and the construction of new penitentiary centers in the remote jungle or on ships, criminal groups have temporarily smoothed over their differences to declare war on a common enemy. : the Ecuadorian State.
With EFE, Reuters and local media
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