Monday, January 12, 2026 - Police discovered the heads hanging from ropes fixed to wooden poles in the latest horror display of gang violence gripping the country.
The
decapitated heads were found on a beach in Puerto Lopez, in the southwest of
Ecuador.
Cops
said the grim act was likely carried out by a criminal group who operate in the
region as a direct threat to a rival gang.
Drug-trafficking
networks often use local fishermen and their small boats to help transport drugs, according to authorities.
Images
showed the heads were placed next to a warning
sign directed at the alleged blackmailers of the fishermen, police believe.
Fighting
among drug trafficking gangs has dramatically worsened in recent months as they
feud over territory and control of the Manabi province.
A state of emergency is already in force across nine of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, including Manabi.
Police
have ramped up control and surveillance operations in Puerto Lopez after the
severed heads were found.
Despite
attempts by the country’s government and armed forces to crack down on the
cartels, Ecuador remains the world’s number one exporter of cocaine.
2025
marked Ecuador’s most violent year on record after more than 9,000 murders were
reported, according to official figures.
These
numbers have come alongside a series of riots which have left gangs in
charge of
prisons, rival factions waging bitter warfare against each other, brutal
medieval-style executions and hanging bodies all found on bridges.
In
April 2025, gunmen wearing replica military gear attacked a
crowd at a cockfighting ring, opening fire and murdering 12 people.
Local
reports indicated that the massacre was carried out by a criminal gang whose
rivals were at the event in the north-west of the country.
And earlier that month, at least 22 people were murdered in Guayaquil after rival trafficking factions exchanged gunfire in a fight over territory.
The
most dramatic example of the escalating violence occurred in January last year,
when masked gunmen broke into a television studio, threatening the
presenter while live on air and trying to force him to read out a warning to
police.
Constant
violence along Ecuador’s coastal region has caused the UK’s foreign office to
advise against all but essential travel across Manabi and six other regions.
Bordering Peru and Colombia, Ecuador is
perfectly positioned to facilitate the flow of drugs onwards towards North
America and Europe.
Many
of the drug gangs were previously small players, focussing only on activities
such as extortion and the local drug market.
But
since 2020, cartels have ruthlessly expanded their numbers, breaking inmates
out of prisons and forcing others to do their bidding or face death.
According
to the country’s coastguard, 90 per cent of the illicit trade leaves via the
port of Guayaquil.
As
a result, the city has become the epicentre of the battleground between rival
drug trafficking gangs and the armed forces, and the final resting place of
hundreds of victims.
“It’s
like a cemetery with human body parts left strewn about,” a local police
captain told The Guardian.
In
nearby Durán, where more than 400 people were killed in 2023 alone, the streets
are graffitied with the motto of the local Los Tiguerones gang – “God, Peace,
Freedom”.
According
to the country’s President Daniel Noboa, 70 per cent of the world’s cocaine is
shipped via his country.
A
free trade agreement with Europe and the widespread use of the dollar also
increased the attractiveness of smuggling the drug through Ecuador
0 Comments