In a brutal display of criminal intimidation, five decapitated heads were discovered by bathers on a beach in Puerto López, Ecuador, this Sunday. The grim finding underscores the escalating gang violence plaguing the nation’s coastal regions. Authorities confirmed the victims were men, aged 20 to 34, who had been reported missing recently. One was known to police for previous firearm offenses, though their bodies remain missing.
Accompanying the remains was a menacing message, explicitly warning individuals engaged in the extortion and robbery of local fishermen of a similar fate. This act is perceived as a violent directive from criminal factions controlling the area.
This incident is the latest in a series of violent outbreaks in Puerto López, a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Colombia and Peru to the U.S. and Europe. Just days prior on December 28th, a separate attack on the same beachfront claimed six lives, including a two-year-old child, and injured three others. Police attribute these shootings to a vicious turf war between rival factions of the notorious Los Choneros gang for control of the town.
The situation in Ecuador has reached a critical point. Official data from the interior ministry marks 2025 as the most violent year on record, with homicides soaring to an unprecedented 9,176. The country’s strategic location has made it a hub for narcotics trafficking, with local gangs forming alliances with powerful international cartels like those from Mexico and Colombia. Beyond drug smuggling, these criminal enterprises systematically extort ‘protection money’ from local businesses, resorting to lethal force against those who resist.
The Los Choneros gang, identified by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation since September, is a primary instigator of this crisis. Its leader, known as Fito, was extradited to the United States in July last year, yet the gang’s violent influence continues to destabilize the region.