Profiling Criminal Groups in Durán, Ecuador

*This article is part of an investigation exploring criminal dynamics in Durán, Ecuador’s primary organized crime hotspot and one of the world’s most violent cities in 2023. Read the other chapters of the investigation here or download the full report (PDF) here.

The Latin Kings

The Latin Kings are a street gang with a long history that spreads across a huge geographic and political spectrum, belying their reputation as a ruthless criminal operation. The Kings were born in Chicago in Latino – largely Mexican – neighborhoods in the 1940s or 1950s. In the late 1980s, they began spreading beyond the American Midwest, including to New York, Florida, and California.

At some point, the gang’s leadership in the United States split into two main factions. One is the original, Chicago-based line, sometimes referred to as “King Motherland Chicago”; and the second, a New York-based faction, known as “Bloodline,” a reference to Luis Felipe, alias “King Blood,” who founded the New York state chapter of the Latin Kings in prison in 1986. Their competition for influence would spread abroad when, at the turn of the century, Latin King members began founding “nations,” as they called new foreign-born chapters, in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and beyond.

Many of the Kings who spread the gang’s influence were ex-convicts who, upon release from the US prison system, were deported to their countries of origin. This included ex-convicts who landed in Ecuador in the early 1990s. According to various academic accounts about the gang, one member started a nation in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and another a nation in Guayaquil. Neither chapter was aware of the other until later, the sources say, and, although they have merged into one nation since, these two Latin King factions remained largely autonomous in practice.

The Ecuador Latin Kings’ manifesto speaks to some of these early conflicts. In a copy of the manifesto obtained by InSight Crime, the Latin Kings say that during 1997 and 1998, various factions fought for the crown. The result, the manifesto says, was unity, but not before significant bloodshed. Ecuador has since followed the New York-based Bloodline faction. But while they pay homage to King Blood on T-shirts and flags, they also recognize the authority of Chicago or the “Motherland.”

Like every nation, the Ecuadorian Latin Kings are led by an “inca,” who leads a council made up of at least five “coronas” (crowns): the inca, a vice president, an enforcer, a treasurer, and a secretary. Some nations, including the one in Ecuador, also have an advisor, who advises both the inca and his second-in-command. From there, each nation is broken down into regional chapters, sometimes called tribes or sections, which can have between 25 and 50 members, or “kings,” according to one Latin King leader and the group’s official literature.

The Latin King leader told InSight Crime that the Ecuadorian nation has hundreds of thousands of kings, but this is difficult to corroborate. Other sources, including police officials, have also told InSight Crime that the Latin Kings’ membership is large, but officials do not offer an estimate of the total membership. What is clear is that Guayaquil remains a stronghold for the group, with numerous chapters in the area, including in Durán.

The importance of Durán became clear by the mid-2000s, when a Durán native, Manuel Zúñiga, alias “King Majestic,” became Ecuador’s inca. Majestic was a charismatic and influential leader, and in 2007, he led a portion of the Kings into what was loosely termed a “pacification” process with former President Rafael Correa’s administration. Although complex and multilayered, there were two main objectives to the process: the first was to slow the violence between Ecuador’s warring street gangs, including the Latin Kings and their rivals, the Ñetas, which also had a strong presence in Durán.

The other goal was to provide an avenue for gang members to enter civilian life. Leaving gangs is difficult and dangerous. The Latin Kings, for example, like to say: “Once a king, always a king.” So many gang members prefer to enter what can be termed a “semi-retired” state, becoming “Ancient Kings,” according to Latin King literature. This allows them to withdraw from compromising, often criminal, activities without the risk of being labeled informants or government cooperators by the gang. Such a label can mean forced displacement or even a death sentence in the criminal world.

With Majestic’s blessing, many Kings entered this semi-retired state. The Correa administration provided some limited funding for re-insertion, re-integration, and community outreach programs in Durán and elsewhere. Many were invited to join the government. In Durán, dozens became part of former Mayor Alexandra Arce’s administration working in construction, street repair, and community organization, according to Arce and the Latin King leader who spoke with InSight Crime.

SEE ALSO: Ecuador ‘Legalizes’ Gangs and Slashes Murder Rate

Though the process succeeded in bringing down violence indicators, the Latin Kings’ decentralized structure meant that participation was not uniform and some factions, including some in Durán, remained active in criminal activity. Even among gang members dedicated to the process, many remained armed and engaged with other criminal groups as a way to protect themselves. Still, these were relatively peaceful times in Durán. And, even as public support for the program waned, Majestic, who continued to carry weight in Ecuador’s underworld, used his influence to negotiate peace between other gangs and set rules for criminal behavior in places like Durán, according to experts and academics. 

However, things were turning in the underworld, in particular inside the prisons where the Latin Kings also had a presence. While some gang members were demobilizing, others were being folded into more sophisticated criminal structures. Among them were members of the Ñetas, the Latin King’s historic rivals. Some of these Ñetas had also participated in the government process, but others were rebranding themselves. The most formidable of these new groups came from a Ñetas cell in Durán, which, working closely with criminal groups inside prison, formed a new group called the Chone Killers, a reference to their paymasters, the Choneros.

By the time the pandemic hit, peace was unsustainable. Prison riots, which had begun in 2019, exploded. Eventually, the fighting spread to important corridors outside the jails, Durán among them. In 2022, Majestic was murdered in Quito, leaving a power vacuum among Ecuador’s Latin Kings. The Kings atomized. Some members retrenched. Others reclaimed their spot in the criminal world. Among them was the chapter in Durán, which intensified their a war with  the Chone Killers for control of territory and criminal economies, sending violence rates in the municipality spiraling.

Today, these more volatile Latin King chapters have a strong presence in Durán. The Latin King leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Kings have six “tribes” in the area. He did not specify where, but according to government intelligence reports, and interviews with community leaders and current and former Durán officials, this includes chapters in the neighborhoods Recreo 4 and 5, Primavera 2, Los Helechos, and 288 Hectáreas, among others. Assuming each tribe or chapter has at about 50 members, the Latin Kings would have close to 300 active members in Durán.

The Latin Kings’ national leader is Carlos Manuel Macías Saverio, alias “King Diablo,” according to police intelligence reports, academic reports, and security force sources. Diablo, who we chronicle in detail in a separate case study, closely oversees criminal operations in Durán. And his ascent to the top of Latin King leadership shows the extent to which Ecuador’s criminal environment has shifted and how the group has been co-opted by its criminal wing in the process.

But it is also illustrative of the many faces of the Latin Kings. Diablo was not necessarily against the pacification process or any of the group’s political- or community-organization work, according to experts and academics who have spent years studying the nation. But he kept his distance and instead focused on building his criminal network, while trying to survive this much more competitive criminal environment.

At the same time, some Latin Kings attempted to distance themselves from Diablo as well. For instance, the Latin King leader who spoke to InSight Crime called him an “advisor” on the national council, rather than the inca, as authorities have referred to him. Since he was “crowned” in New York, the leader said – referring to his place of initiation – he does not even belong to the Ecuadorian nation and therefore cannot be the leader.

We explore Diablo’s rise to the top of Latin Kings’ leadership and his relationship with the peace process in a separate case study.

The Chone Killers

The Chone Killers emerged from a conglomeration of former Ñetas cells and independent, low-level criminal leaders in Durán. Like the Latin Kings, the Ñetas were a foreign-born gang, with their roots in the prisons of Puerto Rico. They also went through a process of migration to the United States, then imprisonment, then deportation, which landed them in Ecuador. And like the Latin Kings, they first appeared in Guayaquil in the 1990s and later Durán. Although they were not as prominent, they took root in some of the same impoverished areas as their counterparts.

When the Correa administration began its pacification process, some Ñetas took part in the job training and education programs. They did not appear to hold the same political connections as the Latin Kings, as they did not secure as many government positions. And as support for the programs fizzled and the prison-based gangs gained momentum, the Ñetas atomized. Some of those who were in prison, connected with these more sophisticated criminal groups. Among them were the Camacho brothers, Antonio Benjamín, alias “Ben 10,” and Terry Israel, alias “Trompudo,” who led a faction of the Ñetas in Durán called the Killers.

Specifically, while in prison, Trompudo met Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña,” the leader of the Choneros drug trafficking group, who was also imprisoned at the time. Soon after, the Chone Killers were born as an armed wing of the Choneros specializing in murder-for-hire. The first glimpse of the Chone Killers in Durán was in October 2020, when at least three attacks left four dead and nine injured, El Universo reported. Most of the victims were alleged Latin Kings members.

Police struck back. In December 2020, authorities captured Ben 10 and 15 other members of the group. But in May 2021, Ben 10 and some of his accomplices were released. Luis Machado, a Guayas prosecutor working on the case, determined there was not enough evidence to prosecute Ben 10. Machado was later arrested for procedural fraud related to this decision, but the implication was clear: The Chone Killers had powerful allies who could reach into the justice system to protect them.

Meanwhile, Ecuador’s larger criminal dynamics continued evolving at a rapid pace, upending the Chone Killers’ initial alliance with the Choneros. It began with the assassination of Rasquiña in late December 2020, which rattled the Ecuadorian underworld and pushed the Chone Killers from under the Choneros’ umbrella. As fighting broke out among former Choneros allies, the Chone Killers sought a new alliance with two former Choneros’ allies: the Lobos and Tiguerones. Over the next two years, this alliance, headed by the Lobos and dubbed Nueva Generación (New Generation), gained significant power on a national level through its involvement in transnational drug trafficking.

SEE ALSO: The Rise and Fall of the Choneros, Ecuador’s Drug Trafficking Opportunists

But the Nueva Generación alliance did not last long. The October 2022 murder of Leandro Norero, a backer of the group and a patron of the Chone Killers, along with November 2022 security operations carried out in Guayaquil’s prison system crippled the group’s power behind bars. Amid the upheaval, Nueva Generación deteriorated, and the Chone Killers again began to ally themselves with the Choneros.

It was in this context that Washington Sellán Hati, alias “Washo,” a prominent criminal figure who regulated Durán’s gangs and criminal economies, was murdered in May 2023. In the power vacuum following Washo’s death, Chone Killers factions have intensified their move to wrest control of parts of Durán from the Latin Kings.

Part of the upheaval comes from the Chone Killers’ own fragmentation, which seems to have stemmed from its disorganized, hyper-entrepreneurial nature. While they are organized into chapters, with local leaders allied to Ben 10 and Trompudo controlling Durán’s neighborhoods, there is not a clear hierarchy or structure unifying them. Some of these leaders, like Cristhian Eduardo Pastor, alias “Gato Celi,” specialize in criminal economies like kidnapping and extortion. Others are tied to specific neighborhoods, among them Gutemberg Andrés Rodríguez, alias “Bob Marley,” who operates out of El Arbolito, and Andrés Alexander Barrios, alias “Monchis,” who controls Recreo 2, according to intelligence reports and a former Durán police official.

One powerful leader appears to have gone rogue, leading to fragmentation of the group. Julio Alberto Martínez, alias “Negro Tulio” or “La T,” has reportedly split from Chone Killers leadership, according to a former gang leader and a government official with knowledge of the group who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. “He no longer wants to obey anyone,” the official said.

This fragmentation has resulted in violence between factions of the group, according to a Durán police official and multiple government officials, adding to the already brutal confrontations between the Chone Killers and Latin Kings.

Internal disputes, spurred by Negro Tulio, may be complicating the Chone Killers’ relationship with national drug trafficking structures. Their weakness has left at least some factions locked out of the transnational drug trade, according to the former gang leader, who maintains contact with current gang members. The Durán police official said that this hypothesis also exists within the police, but could not provide any evidence to back it up.

In May 2024, Panamanian authorities captured Negro Tulio and extradited him to Ecuador. Following his arrest, armed men shot down a Chone Killers lieutenant, whom government officials told InSight Crime had served as Negro Tulio’s right-hand man in Durán. One source, who had received constant threats from Negro Tulio’s faction, said that the threats decreased after the gang leader’s arrest and stopped entirely after his lieutenant’s death.

After a police operation in August 2024 that arrested 23 members of the Chone Killers allegedly linked to Negro Tulio’s faction, police claimed that the gang leader was continuing to run his operations in Durán from behind bars. It’s unclear what impact the police crackdown will have on Negro Tulio, his faction in Durán, and the rest of the fragmented Chone Killers.

Thus far, however, what the Chone Killers have lacked in internal discipline, they have made up for in force. This has helped them maintain a strong presence in various parts of Durán, including El Arbolito, Sector Maldonado, and Abel Gilbert 3, among others, according to intelligence reports and current and former municipal officials. But ongoing battles for territory with the Latin Kings, as well as internal disputes, means territory is constantly shifting.

The group has some influence in the greater Guayaquil area as well, according to local media reports, a former Guayaquil gang member, and security officials. The Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory (Observatorio Ecuatoriano del Crimen Organizado – OECO) and police sources told Primicias in January 2024 that the Chone Killers only have a presence in Durán but are able to carry out assassinations in other parts of the Guayaquil metropolitan area. For example, authorities attributed the murder of César Suárez, a prosecutor, in northern Guayaquil to Negro Tulio and the Chone Killers.

Other media reports suggest a more permanent presence outside Durán. An August 2024 operation uncovered a Chone Killers network in Daule, a town north of Guayaquil, while a June 2024 Primicias report highlighted the Chone Killers expanded operations in Samborondón, the municipality lying between Guayaquil and Durán. 

El Llorón

There is one other criminal group key to understanding Durán’s underworld – the gang which controls the infamous hilltop sector of Cerro Las Cabras (Goat Hill) and answers to Carlos Humberto Silva Vinueza, alias “El Llorón” (The Crybaby). Academic, government, police, and media reports often label El Llorón’s group as either a faction of the Choneros, or a faction of the Choneros subsidiary, the Águilas. But InSight Crime’s investigation suggests that, while El Llorón maintains stable alliances with both, he operates with considerable autonomy.

“El Llorón has always been someone who manages on his own,” a police official who used to work in Durán told InSight Crime, echoing the sentiments of many officials, experts, and residents we consulted about the criminal faction.

El Llorón seems to have started his criminal career together with Cerro Las Cabras’ street gangs nearly 20 years ago. As these gangs organized into a more sophisticated criminal group, El Llorón emerged as their leader. Government records connect him to a murder in 2005, then, in 2009, illegal weapons possession. By 2014, he had become one of the most wanted criminals in the province of Guayas after being linked to the murder of Alexandra Arce’s brother, Kevin Arce Plaúas, who was shot in the back while walking on the streets of Durán in October 2010.

The motive remains unclear, but Arce was Durán’s mayor when security and intelligence forces raided Cerro Las Cabras and arrested El Llorón on March 2, 2014. In 2015, El Llorón was acquitted of the murder charges based on evidence that he was in the coastal city of Manta at the time of the murder. InSight Crime could not confirm how long El Llorón spent in detention after his arrest, and a source with access to prison records said they are incomplete on the matter. Still, it could not have been long since, by 2015, prosecutors had filed new charges of murder against El Llorón, who was already back in his stronghold where he has been operating ever since, multiple government sources told InSight Crime.

It is his home. El Llorón’s whole extended family, including his mother, kids, and grandkids live on the hill, according to residents and a former police official. Testimony from Cerro Las Cabras residents and police officials who worked in Durán, as well as a lack of criminal cases opened after 2015, suggest that El Llorón has mellowed with age. He also enforces strict control over his criminal gang, prohibiting, for example, extortion in the area.

El Llorón’s relationship with the community has helped him avoid another arrest. The gang leader almost always hears about security operations ahead of time and goes underground with the help of Cerro Las Cabras residents, according to Durán locals, experts, and former police officials. Rival gang members have also made multiple attempts to push El Llorón out of Cerro Las Cabras and take control of the territory for themselves, community leaders told InSight Crime. But such attempts have been fruitless, likely a combination of geography — Cerro Las Cabras is built on a hill with only two major access points — and criminal governance with residents acting as an intelligence network reporting on the movement of strangers.

For the moment, other criminal groups may have given up. The Chone Killers’ re-alignment with the Choneros, has activated a non-aggression pact with El Llorón, according to a security official and a former gang member. But this truce is not stable and residents told InSight Crime that El Llorón and his family remain in danger with his children being unable to leave the safety of the hill. Cerro Las Cabras’ strategic importance as a drug distribution and storage area also continues to make it a major target for security forces. The most recent rounds of security force operations began in June 2024 and are ongoing, according to a local resident who has seen security force incursions.