Venezuelan dismemberment suspect detained in Ecuador linked to Los Lobos gang
The Ecuadorian Army captured Hermes Ponce, alias 'La Muerte', in Naranjal, accused of kidnapping and dismembering victims. He would belong to Los Lobos, classified as a terrorist organisation.
Venezuelan captured in Guayas accused of kidnapping and dismembering his victims
The Ecuadorian Army detained on Sunday a Venezuelan citizen identified as Hermes Ponce, alias 'La Muerte', allegedly a member of the Los Lobos gang, the country's largest and most violent criminal organisation, according to infobae.com.
Defence Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo confirmed the capture in a video: "We have captured a monster who kidnapped, beat his victims, to later make them dig their own grave and dismember them and bury them in pieces. But it's over".
Ponce was apprehended in the municipality of Naranjal, a coastal province of Guayas, one of the areas hardest hit by organised crime violence in Ecuador. During the operation, military forces seized a mobile phone with several videos that, according to the Army, would show people digging holes and, subsequently, attacking and dismembering a victim to bury it in the surroundings of a banana-growing area.
Loffredo noted that the detainee would also be linked to hired killing, kidnapping, extortion and intimidation.
Los Lobos is one of the criminal groups declared "terrorist" by the Ecuadorian Government in the framework of the offensive against armed gangs initiated in 2024, to which the escalated level of violence recorded in the country in recent years is attributed.
Source: Google News EC — Crime