Who are the “Choneros”, “Lobos” and “Tiguerones”, the drug trafficking groups against which Ecuador has declared war?

“Los Choneros”, “Los Lobos”, “Los Tiguerones” and other different names of criminal gangs born in Ecuador are behind the escalation of violence that led the government to declare them as terrorist groupswith a history of hegemonies, betrayals and rivalries for the control of drug trafficking and other illicit activities.

The number of these gangs has multiplied in recent years as Ecuador has become a key point for global cocaine trafficking, where much of Colombia’s production of that drug arrives and then sends it through its ports and coasts to supply the Mexican and Eastern cartels. The European mafias.

The oldest and largest gang is that of “Los Choneros”, whose leader, the drug trafficker José Adolfo Macías Villamar known as “Fito”, escaped weeks ago from the regional prison of Guayaquil, where he was serving a 34-year prison sentence imposed in 2011 for drug trafficking, organized crime and murders.

“Los Choneros” was born in 1998 in the city of Manta and was initially dedicated to micro drug trafficking, led by Jorge Bismark Véliz España, nicknamed “Chonero” or “Lieutenant Spain”, whose wife and children were murdered by “Los Queseros”, the rival gang, who started a war that ended with the extermination of the latter.

The hegemony of “Los Choneros”

For 2003, “Los Choneros” They have completely taken control of the drug trafficking route in the province of Manabílocated on the central coast of Ecuador, and, according to a recent police report, were responsible for transporting the drugs from Colombia.

However, “Teniente España” was assassinated in 2007 and took over the leadership of “Los Choneros” Jorge Luis Zambrano González “Rasquiña”, under whose command the gang grew to practically control the drug trafficking in the country and also diversified its activity criminal to the point of extortion. , robberies, arms trafficking and hitmen.

Even from prison, “Rasquiña” managed to lead the gang and expand its operations, for which he recruited other criminal groups who operated as cells in different parts of the country and who were responsible to him, such as “Los Tiguerones”, ” Los Lobos” or the “Chone Killers,” according to investigations and reports by the National Police of Ecuador.

Gang war

This hegemony of “Los Choneros” was broken at the end of 2020 with the assassination of “Rasquiña”, which sparked a bloody war between different gangs for having taken control of organized crime in Ecuadorian territory.

That war has so far resulted in the killing of more than 450 prisoners in Ecuadorian prisons in a series of prison massacres, while street massacres have also been frequent since then.

The leadership of “Los Choneros” was assumed by “Fito”, leader of “Los Fatales”, and Junior Roldán “JR”, leader of “Los Águilas”, but after his assassination last year in Colombia, the former remained as the absolute chief leader of the organization.

At the forefront, the “Chone Killers”, “Los Tiguerones” and “Los Lobos” seek to emancipate themselves from “Los Choneros” and have greater control over their criminal activity, an alliance that allegedly had the financing of alleged drug traffickers and money launderer Leandro Norero, killed in prison in 2022.

Norero’s death was revealed the “Metastasis” case, the largest anti-corruption operation in the history of Ecuadorr, a conspiracy of alleged judicial, police and prison corruption, among which the now former president of the Judicial Council, Wilman Terán, as well as important magistrates, are among the defendants.

The Police had already warned this months ago, which indicated in a report that “Los Tiguerones”, who emerged as the armed wing of “Los Choneros”, had managed to “penetrate state institutions such as the Judicial Council, the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Police, the Forces Armies and local governments”.

The power of the “Los Lobos” gang.

Currently, it is the «Los Lobos» that have acquired greater weight than the «Los Choneros», with an important presence in much of the Ecuadorian territory.

In this process, these organizations have generated ties with Mexican cartels such as those of Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación, as well as with the Balkan mafia, turning the coast of Ecuador into a shuttle for cocaine on boats and “semi-submersibles” to North America and infecting containers of products exported to Europe from the ports of Guayaquil and Machala, mainly.

The growth of Ecuador’s primary sectors, such as bananas and shrimp, and the lack of controls have made it easier for mafias to export drugs, while Dollarized economy The Ecuadorian helps launder illicit money.

The power of these gangs has increased in recent years and prisons have practically become their headquarters, which is why President Daniel Noboa’s government has decided to declare an “internal war” on them and consider them terrorist groups to try to stop them.

Source: EFE