Gunmen disguised as soldiers open fire on specators at cockfight in Ecuador, killing 12 unarmed people

Criminals dressed in fake military uniforms opened fire on spectators at a cockfight in rural Ecuador, killing 12 unarmed people and wounding several others, police in the violence-plagued South American nation said Friday.

Security footage of Thursday night’s attack showed a group of at least five men entering the arena and opening fire with automatic rifles on a crowd of dozens in the rural community of La Valencia in northwest Ecuador.

The attackers were dressed in replica military uniforms — a common tactic of criminal gangs in the country, which averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year as cartels vie for control over cocaine routes that pass through Ecuador’s ports.

The footage, circulated on social media, showed spectators flinging themselves to the ground and taking cover under their seats.

“We have 12 people deceased as a result of an armed attack by a criminal group,” police colonel Renan Miller Rivera said in a statement Friday. He said several people were injured, without giving a number.

Police have detained four people, including a “target of intermediate value,” national police chief Victor Hugo Zarate wrote on social media. Police said the four suspects were believed to be part of an organized criminal group called “Los R7.”

After the attack, police found discarded “military-style uniforms” and two abandoned cars on a nearby highway, Miller Rivera added. One of the cars had been set on fire, the other had overturned.

Police released video on social media showing officers recovering evidence hidden under bags and tree branches. The video also showed weapons and cash retrieved as well as an image of four people in custody with their faces blurred.

In addition to the uniforms, police said they recovered eight rifles, four pistols, three shotguns, eight magazines, 11 cell phones, ballistic helmets and tactical gloves.

Ecuador is home to around 20 criminal gangs — with striking names like “Los Freddy Kruegers” and “The Peaky Blinders” — involved in trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. They have wreaked havoc in the country of 18 million squeezed between the world’s biggest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia.

In recent years, the nation has been plunged into violence by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

About 73 percent of the world’s cocaine passes through Ecuador, according to an interior ministry report.

Large parts of the country are under a state of emergency recently renewed by President Daniel Noboa, who was re-elected to a second term in elections last Sunday.

Ecuador gangs targeted by the U.S.

On the campaign trail, Noboa suggested U.S. special forces should be deployed to Ecuador to tackle drug violence and floated legal reforms to allow U.S. bases to operate in the country.

At least two high-profile Ecuadorian gang leaders targeted by the U.S. have made headlines this year. Earlier this month, the fugitive leader of “Los Cheronos” that relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business was indicted in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States. José Adolfo Macías Villamar — whose nickname is “Fito” — escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and is not in U.S. custody. 

In 2024, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on “Los Choneros.”

Earlier this year, a leader of one of Ecuador’s biggest crime syndicates, “Los Lobos,” was arrested at his home in the coastal city of Portoviejo.  Carlos D, widely known by his alias “El Chino,” was the second-in-command of “Los Lobos” and “considered a high-value target,” the armed forces said in a statement.

The U.S. last year declared Los Lobos to be the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador.