Duran, Ecuador - August 14, 2024

Police raided offices of firefighters, offices of the municipality of Duran and cells of a prison in neighboring Guayaquil, from where a prisoner, identified with the alias of "Negro Tulio," "recruited public officials" for the mafias, the Police said on the social network X.

"The vehicles of these public institutions, especially the Fire Department, were being used for the transfer of drugs, specifically the issue of tankers, ambulances," General Freddy Sarzosa, director general of Police Investigations, told the press.

He added that one of the cars was even used in an attempted murder in Duran, a town located 10 km from the port of Guayaquil and used as a drug storage and distribution center.

"Negro Tulio" was identified as a member of the Chone Killers gang, which is among the main criminal organizations operating in Ecuador and is part of twenty drug trafficking groups that fight over drug routes and bleed the nation dry with record levels of violence.