8 bodies found in plastic bags with note left at scene in narco-trafficking hotspot in Ecuador

Eight bodies have been found in plastic bags in a southwestern narco-trafficking hotspot, where eight people went missing on Sunday, Ecuadoran police said Wednesday.

“It has been confirmed that there are eight bodies” found on the outskirts of the town of Babahoyo, Col. Galo Munoz, the area’s police chief, told reporters.

The discovery comes in the midst of a U.S.-backed military crackdown on the organized crime gangs that have transformed Ecuador from one of South America’s safest countries into one of its deadliest.

Eight people, some of whom were related, disappeared on Sunday while traveling from Daule to Milagro, about 30 miles south of Babahoyo.

Interior Minister John Reimberg said a note found at the scene suggested the victims, who had yet to be identified, were targeted by the Los Lobos gang, as part of its war with the rival Los Choneros outfit.

Los Lobos (The Wolves) and Los Choneros (after the city of Chone) are among Ecuador’s main drug trafficking and extortion gangs, with ties to international cartels. In September, Los Lobos was designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

Modesto Freire, the state prosecutor in Milagro, said two of the people reported missing were minors and, according to their families, they were farmers from Daule, a rice-growing region.

Ecuador serves as a gateway to international markets for 70% of the cocaine from neighboring Colombia and Peru, the world’s leading producers of the drug.

The fight for control of the drug trade has led to an explosion of violence, particularly around the port cities of Guayaquil and Manta, through which much of the drugs are smuggled.

In January, police found the bodies of six young people who had gone for a motorbike ride in Santa Elena province, next to Guayas province, where Guayaquil is located.

Ecuador recorded over 9,200 violent deaths last year — a record high.

Right-wing President Daniel Noboa, a staunch ally of President Trump, has imposed curfews and deployed the military to several provinces to try to stamp out gang activity.

American commandos recently joined Ecuadorian troops in a joint mission aimed at dismantling a suspected criminal hub operated by an alleged narco-terrorist organization along the country’s coast.

In early March, the United States and Ecuador launched joint military operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in the country.

Criminal gang violence continues unabated in Ecuador following the recapture in June 2025 of the country’s biggest drug lord, Adolfo Macías, who leads Los Choneros, after his escape from a maximum-security prison in 2024. In July 2025, the Ecuadoran government extradited Macías to the United States, where he faces multiple drug trafficking and firearms charges.