Ecuadoran police said Wednesday they found eight bodies in plastic bags in a southwestern narco-trafficking hotspot, where eight people went missing on Sunday.
- +Eight Bagged Bodies Found In Ecuador Narco Hotspot
“It has been confirmed that there are eight bodies” found on the outskirts of the town of Babahoyo, Colonel Galo Munoz, the area’s police chief, told reporters.
“It has been confirmed that there are eight bodies” found on the outskirts of the town of Babahoyo, Colonel Galo Munoz, the area’s police chief, told reporters.
The discovery comes in the midst of a US-backed military crackdown on the organized crime gangs that have transformed Ecuador from one of South America’s safest countries into one of its deadliest.
Eight people, some of whom were related, disappeared on Sunday while traveling from Daule to Milagro, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Babahoyo.
Interior Minister John Reimberg said a note found at the scene suggested the victims, who had yet to be identified, were targeted by the Los Lobos gang, as part of its war with the rival Los Choneros outfit.
Los Lobos (The Wolves) and Los Choneros (after the city of Chone) are among Ecuador’s main drug trafficking and extortion gangs, with ties to international cartels.
Modesto Freire, the state prosecutor in Milagro, said that two of the people reported missing were minors and that, according to their families, they were farmers from Daule, a rice-growing region.
Ecuador serves as a gateway to international markets for 70 percent of the cocaine from neighboring Colombia and Peru, the world’s leading producers of the drug.
The fight for control of the drug trade has led to an explosion of violence, particularly around the port cities of Guayaquil and Manta, through which much of the drugs are smuggled.
In January, police found the bodies of six young people who had gone for a motorbike ride in Santa Elena province, next to Guayas province, where Guayaquil is located.
Ecuador recorded over 9,200 violent deaths last year — a record high.
Right-wing President Daniel Noboa, a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump, has imposed curfews and deployed the military to several provinces to try to stamp out gang activity.
