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Ecuador enters a state of emergency and declares war on the cartels, the official: Albanian and Serbian clans turned the country into a crime paradise

2024-01-09 17:18:08Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Ecuador enters a state of emergency and declares war on the cartels, the
The army on the streets of cities in Ecuador

Ecuador has declared a national state of emergency as security forces struggle to contain widespread violence, including prison riots, bomb attacks and the kidnapping of four police officers after a senior gang leader escaped from prison.

President Daniel Noboa ordered emergency measures in response to the escape of Jose Adolfo Macia, the leader of the powerful Los Choneros prison gang, which authorities believe controls a large part of the country's prison system, the cocaine trade, accusing him of murder of a presidential candidate last year.

"We have just signed a decree imposing a state of emergency so that the armed forces have all the political and legal support in their actions against these narco-terrorists," Noboa said in a statement. The state of emergency includes a state of siege that occurs between 11 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. on country roads.

Macia, known as "Fito", escaped from La Regional prison, where he had been serving a decades-long sentence since 2011 for murder, cocaine trafficking and robbery, while leading the group Los Choneros. He disappeared hours before prison authorities transferred him to a maximum security prison as part of Noboa's fight against local gangs and drug cartels.

The incident threw the entire country into chaos as riots broke out in at least seven prisons controlled by Fito's gang. Four police officers were kidnapped and a series of bombs exploded across the country.

Prison officials and guards are believed to have been taken hostage in several locations, while unverified social media posts appearing to have been filmed inside prisons showed several hostages pleading for their lives.

One of the most peaceful countries in South America, Ecuador has seen a massive rise in crime and violence in the past five years, with the country's prison system under the effective control of gangs such as Los Choneros, as international cocaine cartels began using its ports on the Pacific Ocean as transit routes for cocaine shipments from Colombia and Peru to Europe and North America. Ecuador's largest port, Guayaquil, serves as a major transit point for both markets.

Noboa, the son of a prominent banana-growing dynasty, was elected in October with a program to crack down on gangs and cartels after the country's crime rate rose more than 500 percent from 2016 to 2022. Only from 2021 to 2022, the crime rate increased by an 82%.

Macia was sentenced to more than 35 years in prison, but according to officials, he remained in charge of Los Choneros from a luxury cell while the group battled with a number of other gangs and cartels for control of Ecuador's cocaine routes.

The fight against cartel and prison gang violence became a key issue in last year's presidential election, and the issue gained momentum after candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed on August 9 while campaigning in Quito after allegedly being threatened by Fito.

Ecuador's prison system is notorious for being dominated by prison gangs that run much of daily life, and gang violence is widespread, with brutal murders occurring during prison riots when gangs fight for control of territory.

On October 6, seven of the 13 people accused of murdering Villavicencio were executed within a few hours in the country's largest prison, which deeply affected Ecuador's judicial system.

According to a European police official who monitors cocaine shipments between South America and the European ports of northern Belgium and Rotterdam – the most important entry points for cocaine into Europe – Ecuador is partly the victim of a previous lack of cartel activity.

"Serbian and Albanian cartels realized about a decade ago that they could secure and ship cocaine from Ecuador to Europe with fewer problems in the country because the police were weak, Albanians and criminals from the former Yugoslavia could travel without visas and because it was considered a neutral territory, without important cartels under control", the official emphasized.

In 2014, an important Albanian cartel boss, Dritan Rexhepi, was arrested in Ecuador while trying to transport several tons of cocaine to Antwerp, being sentenced to 13 years in prison, which he was eventually allowed to serve under house arrest . During this period, the police claimed that Rexhepi not only continued cocaine trafficking from prison, but turned his cartel into one of the most powerful in Europe.

Sometime in late 2022, police are unsure of the exact date, Rexhepi cut off the ankle monitoring device and escaped. He was arrested last year in Istanbul.


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