8 bagged bodies found with note in narco-trafficking hotspot
Ecuador’s president says country is at war with drug gangs 03:15
Ecuadorian police said on Wednesday that eight bodies were found in plastic bags in the southwestern drug trafficking hotspot where eight people disappeared on Sunday.
The region’s police chief, Colonel Galo Munoz, told reporters that “it has been confirmed that eight bodies were found” on the outskirts of the town of Babahoyo.
The discovery comes in the middle of an incident US-backed military crackdown About the organized crime gangs that transformed Ecuador It went from one of the safest countries in South America to one of the deadliest.
Eight people, some of them relatives, disappeared on Sunday while traveling from Daule to Milagro, about 30 miles south of Babahoyo.
Interior Minister John Reimberg said a note found at the scene showed the victims, who have not yet been identified, were targeted as part of the Los Lobos gang’s war with the rival Los Choneros gang.
Police officers recover bodies found in bags on the outskirts of Babahoyo, Ecuador, on June 3, 2026. / Credit: Gerardo MENOSCAL /AFP via Getty Images
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. Los Lobos in September Declared a terrorist organization by the United States.
Milagro state prosecutor Modesto Freire said two of the people reported missing were minors and, according to their families, farmers from Daule, a rice-growing region.
Ecuador serves as a gateway to international markets for 70% of cocaine from its neighbors Colombia and Peru, the world’s leading drug producers.
The fight for control of the drug trade has led to an outbreak of violence, especially around the port cities of Guayaquil and Manta, where most of the drugs are trafficked.
In January, police found the bodies of six teenagers who went for a motorcycle ride in Santa Elena province, next to Guayas province, where Guayaquil is located.
Ecuador recorded over 9,200 violent deaths last year; This is a record number.
Right-wing President Daniel Noboa, a staunch ally of President Trump, has imposed a curfew and deployed the military in many provinces to stamp out gang activity.
american commandos I recently joined Ecuadorian troops are on a joint mission aimed at dismantling a criminal hub suspected of being operated by an alleged narco-terrorist organization along the country’s coast.
At the beginning of March, the USA and Ecuador joint military operations Against “designated terrorist organizations” in the country.
Guilty gang violence It continues unabated in Ecuador after the recapture of the country’s top drug lord in June 2025. Adolfo MaciasWho leads Los Choneros after escaping from a maximum security prison in 2024. Ecuadorian government in July 2025 Macías returned to the United States, where he faced a lot of drug trafficking and firearms. expenses.
