During Ecuador’s war against gangs, hundreds of soldiers swarm prisons and handcuff prisoners in their underwear as they take back control of the prison after the crime boss’s escape

Ecuador’s war against gangs saw hundreds of soldiers storm a prison on Thursday and handcuff inmates in their underwear, taking back control of the complex after the escape of the country’s most wanted crime boss.

Authorities also arrested the suspected killers of a prosecutor who was gunned down in his car on Wednesday on the streets of the port city of Guayaquil, which has become a dangerous hub for cocaine exports from neighboring countries.

Police Commander General Cesar Zapata said on social media on Thursday that two suspects had been arrested.

He said a rifle, two pistols and two cars were seized as “evidence.”

The slain prosecutor, Cesar Suarez, had led the investigation into last week’s dramatic, live-broadcast attack by gangsters on a state television studio, also in Guayaquil, that sparked the ongoing crackdown on the gangs.

After Thursday’s raid, the military shared photos of handcuffed prisoners in their underwear lying face down in prison yards as soldiers stood guard (photo)

Hundreds of soldiers and police, accompanied by army trucks, poured into a huge prison complex – the same complex from which infamous gang boss Adolfo Macias, alias ‘Fito’, leader of Los Choneros – escaped last week. The prison break led to the government’s crackdown

On Thursday, dozens of prisoners lay on the prison floor in their underwear

Meanwhile, hundreds of soldiers and police, accompanied by army trucks, streamed into a huge prison complex – the same complex from which infamous gang boss Adolfo Macias, alias ‘Fito’, leader of Los Choneros – escaped last week.

The prison break from Litoral Penitentiary led to a crackdown by the government and, in turn, fierce retaliation from criminal groups.

After Thursday’s raid, the military shared photos of handcuffed prisoners in their underwear lying face down in prison yards.

Similar images have been circulated in recent days as the government tries to regain control of prisons from the gangs.

Despite being incarcerated, Ecuadorian prisons have in recent years become strongholds for gang leaders to operate from.

According to the Ecuadorian newspaper Primicias, Fito has converted his prison cell in the complex into a ‘private bunker’.

From there, he allegedly controlled Los Choneros’ criminal activities, including extortion and murder, according to the publication.

Uniformed officers are in “control of the external and internal perimeter of the prison complex” in Guayaquil, the military wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has entered crisis after years of expansion by transnational cartels that use its ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

In response to Fito’s escape, President Daniel Noboa imposed a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew.

Drug cartels responded quickly, threatening to execute civilians and security forces and take dozens of police and prison officials hostage after they were released.

General Victor Herrera, commander of Zone 8, speaks during a press conference on January 18, 2024 in Guayaquil, Ecuador

A member of the military monitors the Regional 8 prison complex from a helicopter during an operation in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on January 18

Military vehicles arrive at the prison on Thursday ahead of the operation

Prisoners are seen on a basketball court in Litoral prison on Thursday

On January 9, attackers stormed the TV station, firing gunshots and forcing staff to lie on the ground, while a woman was heard pleading: “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot.”

Police entered the studio after about 30 minutes of chaos, dispersed the situation and arrested thirteen attackers, many of them teenagers.

Noboa then declared the country in a “state of war,” deploying thousands of soldiers and police to patrol the streets and hunt for gang members, drugs and weapons.

In the past nine days, they have carried out more than 23,000 operations and arrested 2,174 people, 158 of whom were wanted for “terrorism,” the military says.

The explosion of violence comes weeks after Attorney General Diana Salazar announced an investigation highlighting ties between the gangs and powerful state officials, from judges to a former prison chief.

Salazar launched the ‘Metastasis’ investigation after the 2022 prison death of powerful drug lord Leandro Norero.

Her team searched the chats and call logs from his cell phone and found links to high-ranking officials doling out favors in exchange for money, gold, prostitutes, apartments and other luxuries.

More than 900 people took part in the investigation, which resulted in more than 75 raids and dozens of arrests.

“The response to this operation will certainly be an escalation of violence,” she predicted in December.

Salazar said she had received death threats from the powerful gang Los Lobos (The Wolves), whose boss Fabricio Colon also escaped from prison last week.

Those investigating the gangs have become targets.

Prosecutor Suarez had been investigating cases related to mafia infiltration of the justice system and corruption scandals related to the purchase of medical equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In June last year, another prosecutor, Leonardo Palacios, was shot dead in the city of Duran, near Guayaquil, and in 2022 two prosecutors and a judge were shot dead in other parts of the country.

Anti-graft and anti-cartel presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed in a barrage of automatic gunfire after a campaign speech just weeks before last year’s elections, which Noboa won.

Gangsters are seen on Tuesday after storming and taking over a TV studio in Ecuador

Prison guards are taken hostage by machete-wielding prisoners

Similar treatment of prisoners has been seen in recent years in El Salvador, where the country’s president has locked up 2 percent of the country’s adult population in an effort to crack down on suspected gang members.

Ecuadorian authorities attribute the unprecedented violence to a power vacuum caused by the December 2020 killing of Jorge Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña” or “JL,” the former leader of the Los Choneros cartel before Fito.

Since then, Los Choneros – now led by Fito – and the splinter groups Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones have been fighting for territory and control, including within prison facilities, where at least 400 inmates have been killed in riots since 2021.

The gangs have ties to cartels from Colombia and Mexico, including the infamous Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, which are also at war.