Los Tiguerones are an Ecuadorian crime syndicate that specializes in drug trafficking activities, assassinations, and other crimes. The group split from
Los Choneros in 2020, along with
Los Lobos and
Los Chone Killers following the murder of Los Choneros leader
Jorge Luis Zambrano. The group is based in
Esmeraldas.
History
When Los Choneros leader Zambrano was killed in 2020, Los Chone Killers and several other gangs split off due to disagreements with the leadership of
José Adolfo Macías Villamar.
Clashes and massacres in prisons across Ecuador broke out in the wake of the split.
In 2021, Los Tiguerones, along with other gangs formerly allied to Los Choneros, including Los Chone Killers, Los Pipos, and Los Lobos, announced the creation of an alliance dubbed
Nueva Generación after an alliance with
Jalisco New Generation Cartel
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel ( es, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación) or CJNG, formerly known as ''Los Mata Zetas'', is a semi-militarized Mexican criminal group based in Jalisco which is headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes ("El Me ...
.
On 28 September 2021, a dispute between Los Lobos and Los Choneros in the
Litoral Penitentiary,
Guayaquil
, motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil
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, led to
a riot that killed 123 inmates and injured over 80, becoming the deadliest prison riot in Ecuador's history. In that riot, members of the Los Tiguerones gang attacked inmates in pavilions 1 and 3 and beheaded five of them.
Los Chone Killers and Tiguerones killed sixty-eight inmates in November 2021 at a
prison riot
A prison riot is an act of concerted defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against the prison administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners.
Prison riots have not been the subject of many academic studies or research inqui ...
in Litoral Penitentiary.
See also
*
Tren de Aragua
References
{{Reflist
Drug cartels in Ecuador
Crime in Ecuador
Organizations established in 2020
2020 establishments in Ecuador