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21-04-2025
QUITO: Police in Ecuador say they have arrested four people in connection with an attack by gunmen at a cockfighting ring in which 12 people died.
Weapons and replica police and army uniforms were seized during police raids in the north-western Manabi province on Friday, a day after the attack in the rural community of La Valencia.
Footage of the attack shared on social media showed gunmen entering the ring and opening fire, as terrified spectators dived for cover.
Reports in local media suggested the attackers in fake military gear were members of a criminal gang whose rivals were at the cockfight.
A criminal investigation has been launched by the provincial authorities.
As many as 20 criminal gangs are believed to be operating in the Latin American country, vying for control over major drug routes.
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has said that about 70% of the world’s cocaine now flows through Ecuador’s ports before being shipped to the US and Europe.
The drug is smuggled into Ecuador from neighboring Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine.
This January saw 781 murders, making it the deadliest month in recent years. Many of them were related to the illegal drug trade.
Gunmen disguised as soldiers open fire on specators at cockfight in Ecuador, killing 12 unarmed people. Criminals dressed in fake military uniforms opened fire on spectators at a cockfight in rural Ecuador, killing 12 unarmed people and wounding several others, police in the violence-plagued South American nation said Friday.
Security footage of Thursday night’s attack showed a group of at least five men entering the arena and opening fire with automatic rifles on a crowd of dozens in the rural community of La Valencia in northwest Ecuador.
The attackers were dressed in replica military uniforms, a common tactic of criminal gangs in the country, which averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year as cartels vie for control over cocaine routes that pass through Ecuador’s ports.
The footage, circulated on social media, showed spectators flinging themselves to the ground and taking cover under their seats.
“We have 12 people deceased as a result of an armed attack by a criminal group,” police colonel Renan Miller Rivera said in a statement Friday. He said several people were injured, without giving a number.
Police have detained four people, including a “target of intermediate value,” national police chief Victor Hugo Zarate wrote on social media. Police said the four suspects were believed to be part of an organized criminal group called “Los R7.”
After the attack, police found discarded “military-style uniforms” and two abandoned cars on a nearby highway, Miller Rivera added. One of the cars had been set on fire, the other had overturned.
Police released video on social media showing officers recovering evidence hidden under bags and tree branches. The video also showed weapons and cash retrieved as well as an image of four people in custody with their faces blurred.
In addition to the uniforms, police said they recovered eight rifles, four pistols, three shotguns, eight magazines, 11 cell phones, ballistic helmets and tactical gloves.
Ecuador is home to around 20 criminal gangs with striking names like “Los Freddy Kruegers” and “The Peaky Blinders” involved in trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. They have wreaked havoc in the country of 18 million squeezed between the world’s biggest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia.
In recent years, the nation has been plunged into violence by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe. (Int’l News Desk)
