Ecuador's Police Detain Head Of Second-Largest Criminal Gang - Police General Commander

MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2023) Ecuador's police have detained the leader of the country's second-largest criminal gang, Los Lobos, in the region bordering Colombia, Ecuadorian National Police General Commander Fausto Salinas said Thursday.

"Alias 'La Foca' is detained. The priority target was captured by units of the Ecuadorian National Police in the province of Esmeraldas. Alias 'La Foca' was the leader of the Los Lobos in that province," Salinas tweeted.

Los Lobos, according to estimates, has 8,000 members who engage in drug trafficking and assassinations throughout the country. The group is the second after the Los Choneros drug cartel, which was founded in the 1990s in the town of Chone in the Manabi Province and has up to 20,000 members, in terms of the number of members and territorial coverage of their criminal activities.

Los Lobos' name has repeatedly surfaced in the media in connection with massacres in Ecuadorian prisons, where over 400 inmates were killed in 2021-2022 alone.

In 2023, the activities of gangs in Ecuador were recognized as a terrorist threat to the state. Despite the authorities' claims that they were ready to confront them by all available means, the number of intentional homicides in Ecuador is increasing. Last year's figures � 4,000 murders � were expected to be exceeded in 2023.