Criminals in Ecuador are abusing private security companies

The number of private security companies in Ecuador has increased as crime rises. However, there is growing evidence that criminals have infiltrated the sector, suggesting that the sector may be serving criminals as well as the private and government sectors.

Take the recent case of Carlos Joel GC, alias “Carlitos,” a Guayaquil drug trafficker who, according to the Interior Ministry, headed one of “the largest and most sophisticated organizations” in the country. Carlitos relied on a fleet of armored vehicles to transport cocaine to shrimp farms around Guayaquil’s many estuaries. From there, speedboats would transport the drugs, often in multi-ton quantities, to cargo ships around the city’s port terminals.

A crucial aspect of this operation, authorities stressed, was Carlitos’ legally registered private security companies, which allowed his operations to remain under the radar of authorities.

Below, InSight Crime examines how Ecuador’s private security sector has grown and why it is increasingly vulnerable to criminal infiltration.

Ecuador’s Private Security Boom

Private security companies have become important partners for the business community and the Ecuadorian government in the fight against organized crime, increasing the sector’s influence.

The private security boom comes despite Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s push to take tough action after an unprecedented outbreak of organized crime. The impact of the military’s strategy has been mixed. While the government has repeatedly claimed that the number of homicides has fallen slightly this year, predatory crimes such as extortion, kidnapping and theft continue to rise in many parts of the country, according to local media.

“I have had several meetings with the armed forces and the police, but nothing works,” an industrial sector leader in the Guayaquil metropolitan area, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, told InSight Crime. “We are being abandoned.”

Private security services have stepped in to fill these gaps, offering enhanced surveillance, armed escorts, and employee background checks in an effort to protect businesses from the threat of criminal gangs.

SEE ALSO: Why have drug gangs in Ecuador turned to extortion?

According to a report by Vistazo, Ecuadorians spent $922 million on these services in 2023, up from $745 million in 2016. As demand for security services rises, the number of newly created security companies increased from 134 in 2022 to 194 in 2023, a survey by Connectas found.

Ecuador’s government, perhaps recognizing the shortcomings of its security strategy, has also turned to private security for support. For example, Ecuador’s National Police unveiled a new program in July that links information-sharing and surveillance systems between national security services and private security firms. This follows revisions to the Private Security and Surveillance Law (Ley de Seguridad y Vigilancia Privada) that went into effect in February, creating an undersecretary within the Ministry of the Interior to oversee cooperation between private security firms and police.

The government has also changed laws to encourage the industry’s growth. It has relaxed gun ownership rules for private security firms, allowing them to build their arsenals at a lower cost. In response to lobbying from the private security industry, Noboa in June lowered the tax on weapons and ammunition from 300% to 30%, part of a broader relaxation of private gun ownership regulations that began in April 2023 with the end of a 12-year ban on civilian firearms ownership. The restriction had made it difficult for private security firms to purchase weapons, according to a June report by Ecuador’s Organized Crime Observatory (Observatorio Ecuatoriano de Crimen Organizado – OECO).

Criminals are entering a vulnerable sector

While private security companies increase the manpower available to combat organized crime gangs, they have also become attractive tools for criminals seeking to legitimize their activities and build arsenals.

Many members of criminal gangs in Ecuador have managed to avoid convictions, through corrupt legal processes or other means, allowing them to slip through the government regulatory system and establish or acquire security companies.

One such case occurred in the Guayaquil area, where Stalin Rolando Olivero Vargas, alias “El Marino,” a leader of the Lagartos, a gang based in the city, owned a security company, according to an investigation by Connectas. Although Olivero was on the government’s most wanted list and faced multiple weapons and firearms charges, he was never convicted, allowing his company to pass government screening procedures, the investigation found.

SEE ALSO: How Ecuador’s Criminal Elites Twist Legal Norms to Evade Justice

Once a group establishes a security company, it effectively legalizes the criminal group’s presence, government and security officials told InSight Crime. This not only protects it from law enforcement scrutiny, but also provides a channel for money laundering while allowing the group to project power and influence as an armed force on the streets.

For example, Junior Roldán, alias “JR,” a high-ranking Choneros leader before his murder in May 2023, was linked to a security company registered to his ex-partner and son. He used the company to engage in public relations activities, distributing Christmas gifts to children in El Triunfo, near Guayaquil, in collaboration with the city’s municipal government, Primicias said.

In some cases, criminals even posed as private security companies to extort local businesses in Guayaquil, said César Llaguno, director of operations for Segura EP, Guayaquil’s municipal security company.

“The industry pays them a monthly fee, thinking they’re a security company,” Llaguno told InSight Crime in April. “But they’re not.”

The ability of security companies to legally import weapons, now with much lower taxes, also attracts criminal groups. With legal permits, they can import and carry weapons without fear of police intervention, a boon for criminal groups whose operations depend on the use of violence to avoid capture. Olivero, for example, legalized 76 weapons for his company, the Connectas investigation found.

“If you get stopped by a police roadblock and they find weapons, they arrest you,” an operations director for a security company in Guayaquil, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told InSight Crime. “But if the weapon belongs to a security company that is legally authorized to carry weapons… you’re not doing anything illegal.”

Robbing of weapons caches belonging to security companies is also a risk, Jorge Villacreses, president of the private security firm Cuport, told InSight Crime. Villacreses cited a recent example in Durán. According to Extra, three private security guards, working with two other individuals disguised as police officers, killed two of their colleagues while stealing weapons from their employer.

SEE ALSO: Ecuador’s war on gangs stumbles in key coastal city

Furthermore, criminal groups can take advantage of the increasingly close relationship between private security companies and the government. Criminal groups have even infiltrated municipal security councils and transit authorities, using their surveillance structures to evade law enforcement action.

While high-profile cases like Carlitos and JR have made headlines, leaders in the private security industry and government officials told InSight Crime they suspect the problem is already widespread.

“There are many new companies that we don’t know where they come from,” Villacreses told InSight Crime, adding that there are “more than a dozen” in the country that can be directly linked to criminal groups.

Main image: A security guard monitors Ecuador’s referendum elections in April 2024. Photo: Anastasia Austin, InSight Crime.