QUITO: Local officials said gunmen killed as many as five people and injured eight in a home in the Ecuadoran city of Guayaquil, hard hit by violence and drug trafficking. Police colonel Fabary Montalvo said that one of the fatalities was a police personnel shot in the head. Eye witnesses said three persons on a motorcycle arrived at a home in the city and went inside and opened firing, police official said.
5 People killed in Ecuador: Police officials
Guayaquil is the country’s big city, major port and economic center, AFP reported. In the recent past, the city has become one of Ecuador’s increasingly bloody areas of a war between several drug trafficking gangs and groups.
The city’s location makes it a strategic point for consignments of drugs to the Europe and the US. Ecuador is located between Peru and Colombia, the world’s major producers of cocaine. Drug-linked crime has increased in Guayaquil city, with the killing rate nearly doubling between 2021-22 from 14 to 25 per 100,000 residents.
In April, at least ten people were killed when attackers opened fire outside a shop in the port city. And last week, in town of Duran a prosecutor handling murder cases was also killed. Last year, Ecuadoran law enforcing agencies seized 200 tons of drugs, according to AFP.
