The criminals dressed in fake military uniforms opened fire against the spectators in a fighting fight in the rural Ecuador, killing 12 unarmed people and hurting several others, the police in the South American nation full of violence said on Friday.
The safety images of the attack on Thursday night showed a group of at least five men entering the sand and open fire with automatic rifles in a multitude of diseases in the rural community of Valencia in northwestern Ecuador.
The attackers were dressed in replica of military uniforms, a common tactic of Criminal gangs in the countrythat averaged an murder every hour at the beginning of the year as the posters compete for control over the cocaine routes that pass through the ports of Ecuador.
The images, circulated on social networks, showed the spectators throwing themselves to the ground and covering themselves under their seats.
“We have 12 people who died as results of an armed attack of a criminal group,” police colonel Renan Miller Rivera said on Friday in a statement on Friday. He said several people were injured, without giving a number.
Police have arrested four people, including an “intermediate value objective,” wrote the head of the National Police Victor Hugo Zarate on social networks. Police said it was believed that the four suspects were part of an organized criminal group called “Los R7”.
After the attack, the police found “military -style uniforms” discarded and two abandoned cars on a nearby road, added Miller Rivera. One of the cars had fire in the leg, the other had overloaded.
Police published a video on social networks that show officers who recover hidden evidence under bags and tree branches. The video also showed recovered weapons and effective, as well as an image of four people in custody with their blurred faces.
Ecuador National Police
In addition to the uniforms, the police said they recovered eight rifles, four guns, three shotguns, eight magazines, 11 cell phones, ballistic helmets and tactical gloves.
Ecuador is home to around 20 criminal gangs, with striking names such as “The Freddy Kruegers” and “The Peaky Blinders” – involved in trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. They have remembered the ravages in the country of 18 million squeezed among the largest cocaine producers in the world, Peru and Colombia.
In recent years, the nation has been looted by the rapid spread of transnational posters that use their ports to send drugs to the United States and Europe.
About 73 percent of the world’s cocaine passes through Ecuador, according to a report from the Ministry of Interior.
Large parts of the country are under a recently renewed state of emergency President Daniel NnoveraWho was re -elected for a second term in the elections last Sunday.
Ecuador gangs attacked by the United States
In the campaign, Neboa suggested that the special forces of the United States should be deployed in Ecuador to address drug violence and floating legal reforms to allow US bases to operate in the country.
At least two leaders of high profile Ecuadorian gangs attacked by the United States have reached the headlines this year. Earlier this month, the fugitive leader of “Los Cherones” that depended on the Seros, bribes and military weapons to do business was Accused in New York City By charges, it imported thousands of pounds from cocaine to the United States. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is “Fito”, escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and is not in custody of the United States.
In 2024, the United States Treasury imposed sanctions on “Los Choneros”.
Earlier this year, he was a leader of one of the largest crimes unions in Ecuador, “Los Lobos”, was Arrested at home In the coastal city of Portoviejo. Carlos D, widely known for his alias “El Chino”, was the second in command of “Los Lobos” and “considered a target of high value,” the armed forces said in a statement.
He United States last year declared Lobos Be the Larst drug trafficking organization in Ecuador.