Leading Ecuador gang boss arrested – Army

A leader of one of Ecuador’s biggest crime syndicates Los Lobos was arrested Friday at his home in the coastal city of Portoviejo, the military said.

Carlos D, widely known by his alias “El Chino,” was the second-in-command of Los Lobos (The Wolves) and “considered a high-value target,” the armed forces said in a statement.

A large amount of cash was found at his home, along with armored vehicles, drugs and weapons.

The United States last year declared Los Lobos to be the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador, which has gone from being one of South America’s most stable nations to among its most violent in just a few years due to a surge in narcotics operations.

Last year, the authorities seized a record 294 tons of drugs in raids, mostly cocaine originating in neighboring Colombia and Peru, which is smuggled to Europe and the United States through the port of Guayaquil.

Los Lobos has a presence in 16 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, where it also engages in illegal gold mining, according to the non-governmental group Insight Crime.

Jailed Los Lobos members are the de facto rulers of several Ecuadoran prisons, often directing operations on the outside from behind bars.

Authorities also have accused the group of links to the murder of anti-corruption presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was killed while leaving a rally in Quito in August 2023.