[ad_1]
Washington– On Thursday, the United States sanctioned the Ecuadorian criminal gang “Los Lobos” and its leader Wilmer Geovanny Chavarría Barre, also known as “Pipo,” as part of its strategy to combat organized crime.
In a statement, Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, stressed that through this measure the United States supports Ecuador in its fight against groups that “threaten the lives and livelihoods of communities” not only in Ecuador but “throughout the southern and central regions of the United States.
The Treasury Department said in a statement that Los Lobos had become Ecuador’s largest drug trafficking organization. The group began as a group of hitmen affiliated with the now-rival gang Los Choneros, but the murder of one of its leaders in 2020 left a power vacuum that others have exploited.
According to the Joe Biden administration, Los Lobos are involved in drug trafficking, contract killings and illegal mining, and provide security services to the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel in Mexico, seeking to control cocaine trafficking routes in the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil.
The gang is also accused of planning the murder of 2023 Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
In turn, de Chavarría Barre, who was in prison between 2011 and 2018, is known for ordering the murders of his rivals Leandro Norero and Samir Maestre for controlling their drug trafficking routes.
As a result of Thursday’s sanctions, all property and interests in the United States of the sanctioned individuals and entities will be blocked, and Americans will be prohibited from transacting with them. JS
[ad_2]
Source link
