Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña”

Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña” or “JL,” was the charismatic leader of the Choneros, which, for years, was Ecuador’s most enterprising and powerful criminal group. Rasquiña oversaw the group’s transformation from a localized criminal group into a nationwide prison-based criminal federation with links to transnational drug-trafficking organizations. He was assassinated in 2020.

What Is Rasquiña’s Story?

Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña” or “JL,” was born in Manta, in Ecuador’s Manabí province around 1981. Little is known about his early criminal career, but in the early 2000s, he became associated with Jorge Bismarck Véliz España, alias “Teniente España” or “El Chonero.” 

España’s gang, the Choneros, whose name was a nod to its leader’s hometown in Chone, initially operated in and around Manta, where they were involved in small-time criminal activities like robberies and drug peddling. After Teniente España was killed in 2007, several potential leaders were on deck to replace him, among them Rasquiña, But police operations took out many of the other contenders, leaving Rasquiña as the group’s top leader, with his friend and criminal ally José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito” by his side. 

After the two were arrested and charged with murder in 2011, they were sent to La Roca maximum security prison. In 2013, Rasquiña engineered a Hollywood-style escape with Fito and 16 other inmates. Rasquiña remained on the run for nine months but was eventually recaptured in Bogotá, Colombia.  

After he was returned to prison in Ecuador, Rasquiña began to co-opt smaller gangs of bank robbers, extortionists, and microtraffickers whose leaders were in the prisons, bringing them under the umbrella of the Choneros. 

It was a revolutionary strategy. Through these strategic alliances, Rasquiña gradually transformed the Choneros into a federation. With time, the network took over most of the prison system,then began expanding into important territories outside prison walls. It soon became the main drug transport group for transnational criminal organizations looking to use Ecuador as a springboard to reach the United States and the burgeoning European market. 

But the Choneros had competition both inside and outside the prisons, most notably the Lagartos. Rasquiña launched a war in 2019 against the rival group, murdering the Lagartos’ leaders and members over the course of more than a year. 

In June 2020, Rasquiña was released from prison following an allegedly corrupt court ruling. In December, while shopping with his wife and daughter in a Manta shopping center, he was gunned down.

His death sparked an explosion of violence as the Choneros’ criminal federation atomized, propelling Ecuador into a wave of unprecedented violence.

What Were Rasquiña’s Main Criminal Activities?

The Choneros, under Rasquiña’s command, became the key service providers for transnational drug traffickers in Ecuador. The Choneros were also involved in a range of criminal activities, including  extortion, robbery, kidnapping, murder-for-hire, and money laundering. Under Rasquiña’s command, the Choneros also leveraged their control over prisons into a lucrative criminal business, charging prisoners for access to basic services, including food, and overseeing the sale of contraband liquor, cigarettes, and other vital goods.

Where Did Rasquiña Operate?

While the Choneros’ traditional stronghold is in the coastal province of Manabí, under Rasquiña’s leadership the group expanded its influence across Ecuador. 

Rasquiña coordinated the expansion of the Choneros in the prison system, where they took control of most of the wings in the country’s main penitentiaries. Law enforcement repeatedly attempted to break up prison gangs by relocating gang leaders and dangerous inmates to other penitentiaries, but ultimately this led to gangs like the Choneros extending their presence to more prisons.

Using the other gangs he had allied with, Rasquiña successfully expanded the group’s control into the streets. In the first phase of expansion, the Choneros prioritized two strategic provinces that served as primary dispatch corridors for transnational drug trafficking: Esmeraldas in the north and Guayaquil in the south.

Who Were Rasquiña’s Allies and Enemies?

Rasquiña’s closest ally was José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito,” who acted as his principal lieutenant and later became the Choneros’ leader after Rasquiña’s death.

Rasquiña also cultivated relationships with other gang bosses who would go on to become key figures in the Ecuadorian underworld. Among them were Wilmer Chavarría Barré, alias “Pipo,” top leader of the Lobos; William Joffre Alcívar Bautista, alias “Negro Willy,” who founded the Tiguerones; Junior Roldán, alias “JR,” who established a group called the Águilas; and Terry Israel Camacho, alias “Trompudo,” who formed the Chone Killers. Rasquiña also fostered connections with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.

His enemies’ list was just as long. Early in Rasquiña’s criminal career, the Choneros principal enemies were the Queseros, a rival gang from Manta that was allegedly responsible for the murder of Teniente España in 2007. During the Choneros’ expansion, the group famously feuded with rival gang leader William Poveda Salazar, alias “El Cubano,” who first led his own gang known as Los Cubanos that eventually merged into the Lagartos. El Cubano was murdered in prison by the Choneros, but the Lagartos remains one of the Choneros main rivals. 

Rasquiña’s rivals also included many of his one-time allies. Among the list of suspects for Rasquiña’s murder, which remains unsolved, are Lobos leader Pipo and Rasquiña’s own top lieutenant, Fito, who is purported to have staged a mutiny before taking over the Choneros after Rasquiña was murdered. 

What Is Rasquiña’s Legacy?

Rasquiña’s most important legacy is his federated organized crime model. Under this model, different criminal groups retained their organization’s names, and leaders maintained their operational autonomy, even while they recognized the authority of the Choneros leadership. Rasquiña could therefore assemble a large criminal force without having to directly administer every affiliated group. Rasquiña also helped pioneer the use of the prisons as criminal centers of operations. He achieved this by transforming the prisons into hugely lucrative criminal economies in and of themselves. That buildup of criminal forces unleashed an unprecedented wave of violence in Ecuador. And while Rasquiña was known for his ability to manage a complex coalition, ultimately his legacy may be more closely associated with the brutal gang wars that followed his murder.