Narco Gang Gun Battles kills 22 people in violent Ecuadorian port city Guayaguir

At least 22 people died Thursday in the violent port city of Guayaquil in the hostile faction of the Ecuadorian drug trafficking gang, officials said.

Local police said in a statement three others were injured in a series of clashes in the city as it added 12 deaths.

A police source told AFP the gunfight involved a faction of a gang called Los Tigerones, one of the most powerful countries in the past.

Ecuador has an estimated 20 criminal gangs Drug traffickingkidnapping and extortion, wreaking havoc in a 18 million country squeezed between Peru and Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer.

In recent years, Ecuador has Going into violence Transnational cartels using ports such as Guayaquil spread rapidly, delivering cocaine to the United States and Europe.

For example, homicides have increased from six residents per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to a record 47 in 2023.

Experts say these gangs are changing and growing as the crime profits are made.

Guayaquil is the capital of Guayas, one of seven provinces, and has been in effect for the past two months as the government fights against the gangsters. In February, clashes occurred between competing criminal groups in Guayaguir Taken 14 lives.

Last month, President Daniel Noboa said he would ask unspecified allies to send special forces to help him in the battle.

The violence is not as relaxed as the Ecuadorian gear, which held a runoff election on April 13, and Nobea will face leftist Luisa Gonzalez.

In January, the military said Head of one of the largest criminal groups in EcuadorLos Lobos was arrested at his home in the coastal city of Portoviejo. this Last year, the United States announced Los Lobos Become the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador.

In 2024, Noboa announced “Internal Armed Conflict” Status After a brutal wave of violence, it was triggered by the jailbreak of a powerful crime boss.