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A gang leader has been shot dead in Ecuador after two teenage assassins appeared to hide their guns behind teddy bears as they carried out the killing.
Security footage from the incident on Wednesday shows two young men waiting outside an airport terminal in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city, holding the teddy bear and some flowers before one of them allegedly pulls out a gun from behind the items and shoots the man point-blank.
Ecuador’s interior minister John Reimberg named the man as Carlos Alberto Suastegui Villanueva, 39, who he said was the leader of a faction of one of the country’s most prolific criminal gangs.
Villanueva ran the Los Águilas gang in El Triunfo, a region east of Guayaquil, according to Reimberg.
The group are so feared that they have been designated a “terrorist organisation” by President Daniel Noboa in 2024 and are reported to be heavily involved in drug trafficking to the US, Europe and beyond, and extortion.
Family members react when authorities confirmed that at least one person was killed and another was injured following an armed attack at Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, June 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Another man was reportedly injured in the incident with footage showing a man pulling a suitcase collapsing to the floor during the shooting.
Two teenagers have been detained by police in connection with the crime.
The incident came a day after the president declared a 60-day state of emergency across ten of the 24 provinces in the country in response to a surge in violence orchestrated by drug cartels.
Official figures cited within the statement issuing the order state that the areas had seen 879 murders between 1 May and 12 June 2026.
In a state of the union address last month, President Noboa said of his mission to tackle the drug cartels: “We will seek them out, find them and extradite them.” He added that “families live in fear” due to the organised crime rings.
Since 2021, Ecuador has struggled to contain drug violence as rival cartels have partnered with local gangs and battle for control of routes and coastal ports used to smuggle cocaine.
Members of Ecuador’s Armed Forces stand near the site of an armed attack at Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport, where authorities said at least one person was killed and another injured, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, June 17, 2026. (Reuters)
The country is located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s top cocaine producing countries.
Last year, Ecuador recorded its highest homicide rate in decades of 50 murders per every 100,000 residents, according to figures released by the ministry of the interior.
Noboa, who was reelected last year to a four-year term, has used a state of exception to allow the military to implement crime-fighting strategies including joint patrols with police officers and property searches without warrants.
Earlier this year, Ecuador’s military carried out a joint operation with US forces against a training camp allegedly used by Colombian drug traffickers, attacking the site with drones, helicopters and boats.
Noboa has come under criticism from civil society groups, who say his methods have failed to reduce crime, while putting civilians in danger.
