Lobos

In the space of just a few years, the Lobos have evolved from a splinter group of the Choneros to one of Ecuador’s most powerful and innovative criminal organizations, with thousands of members spread across the country and within the prisons.

Born in Ecuador’s penitentiaries, the Lobos first emerged as an independent criminal group in 2021, when they led a breakaway coalition of gangs that waged war on Ecuador’s most powerful criminal group, the Choneros. Since that time, they have seized territory across the country, made themselves key partners to transnational drug traffickers, pioneered criminal involvement in Ecuador’s gold mining industry, and established themselves as the dominant criminal actor in Ecuador’s capital city, Quito.

History

The roots of the Lobos lie in the meeting between bank robber Wilmer Chavarría Barré, alias “Pipo,” and Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña” or “JL,” the now-deceased charismatic leader of the Choneros gang. The pair met in the prisons, where Rasquiña recruited Pipo to the Choneros gang, which he was in the process of rebuilding and reforming. In exchange for joining the Choneros network, Rasquiña allowed Pipo to retain command of his own structure operating under the umbrella of the Choneros. That structure would go on to take the name of the Lobos.

After the murder of Rasquiña in December 2020, the Lobos would lead a breakaway coalition of former Choneros factions in a criminal conflict against Rasquiña’s successor, Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito.” This alliance, which included the Chone Killers and the Tiguerones, collectively referred to themselves as the Nueva Generación (New Generation). 

The New Generation was financed and supported by Ecuadorian drug traffickers, in particular Leandro Norero. And they established connections with Mexico’s Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG), which was at the time challenging the near monopoly previously enjoyed by the Sinaloa Cartel over trafficking routes through Ecuador to Mexico and Central America.

The conflict between the Lobos’ alliance and the Choneros exploded in early 2021 when a failed attempt on the life of Fito led to two days of violence in prisons around the country that left 79 dead. In the years that followed, the rival networks would dispute power in the prisons and on the streets, sending violence rates spiraling.

But by 2022, the New Generation alliance was starting to fray. When the R7 gang broke from the Lobos, it led to a series of massacres in multiple prisons that killed at least 94. In October 2022, the Lobos also murdered Norero in a prison massacre in what police intelligence agencies believed to be retaliation for his negotiations with the Choneros. While the Tiguerones and the Chone Killers eventually realigned themselves with the Choneros, the Lobos continued to stand against them. 

At the same time, the Lobos were allegedly behind much of the political violence that would destabilize the country. This reached its apex in August 2023, when an anti-corruption candidate for president, Fernando Villavicencio, was murdered during a campaign rally. While the alleged hitmen, who were later themselves murdered in prison, were Colombian, prosecutors believe the Lobos were behind the assassination.

Throughout this time, the Lobos also expanded exponentially, seizing territory and building networks in strategic zones around the country. In each of these areas, they built up networks of local gangs, which fund themselves through extortion, microtrafficking, kidnapping, robberies, and other predatory crimes.

Within the space of a few years, the Lobos established a presence in key drug trafficking zones, which they used to establish themselves as providers of logistical and security services to transnational drug trafficking operations. They also moved into gold mining regions, where they extort and have co-opted both legal and illegal mining operations. And they moved into Quito, taking over the capital city’s wealth of criminal opportunities and cementing their position as one of, if not the most powerful criminal network in Ecuador today.

In early 2024, a military intervention in the prison system isolated several senior Lobos leaders and disrupted communications between the group’s external network and commanders in the prisons. While this appeared to do little to halt Lobos’ activities on the outside, it may have affected the group’s unity, with reports of splinter factions emerging in important areas such as Manabí and Machala.

Leadership

In 2021, it was reported that Pipo had been killed in a prison riot in Turi. However, Ecuadorian authorities later said they believe his death was staged to facilitate his escape and that he remains at the head of the Lobos. This was validated when Pipo was captured in Spain in late 2025. It remains unclear who will take command of the Lobos following his capture.

Along with Pipo, there is a cadre of senior Lobos leaders, some of whom are still in prison and others who remain at large. Among them are Ángel Esteban Aguilar Morales, alias “Lobo Menor,” Álvaro Montaño Valencia, alias “Palanqueta,” and Fabricio Colón Pico, alias “Capitán Pico.”

Geography

According to information provided by the Ministry of Defense and former intelligence officials, by early 2024, the Lobos had a presence in 16 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces. This includes Pacific coast drug trafficking regions such as the cities of Guayaquil, Machala, and Esmeraldas. Since early 2024, they have also made inroads into Manabí, the historical stronghold of their main rivals, the Choneros. In addition, they have expanded into provinces where gold mining has taken hold, including Imbabura, Sucumbíos, Azuay, and El Oro, as well as the capital city of Quito. 

Before the military intervention in early 2024, the Lobos had converted Latacunga prison in Cotopaxi and Turi in Cuenca into strongholds and criminal command centers. They also took over several smaller prisons around the country, including the La Inca prison in Quito, and sections of Ecuador’s biggest prison, Litoral, in Guayaquil.

Allies and Enemies

The Lobos have been at the center of two major criminal realignments that have shaped the Ecuadorian underworld since 2020. First, they played a leading role in forming the New Generation, a breakaway coalition. Later, when their partners in the coalition sought to rebuild their connections to the Choneros, the Lobos declared war on their erstwhile allies.

According to US and Ecuadorian authorities, the Lobos are a central trafficking partner of Mexico’s CJNG. Their control over access to several important ports means they likely also work with European drug traffickers, of which Albanian networks are the most active. According to some media reports, the Lobos also maintain relations with factions of dissidents of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), which control the cocaine supply in the Colombia-Ecuador border region. However, the extent of these ties remains unclear.

Prospects

In its 2024 move to sanction the Lobos, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) declared the group to be Ecuador’s largest drug trafficking organization. And while they remain at the operational level of drug trafficking, acting as service providers rather than trafficking their own shipments, the designation was an indication of how quickly the group has grown and how firmly it has established itself.

While the military intervention in the prisons and on the streets in early 2024 disrupted Ecuador’s criminal dynamics, the Lobos appeared less affected than some of their rivals, continuing their advances in strategic territories such as Esmeraldas and Manabí. However, the emergence of what appear to be splinter groups in certain regions suggests the Lobos may also be affected by the growing atomization of Ecuador’s criminal groups. The capture of Pipo may expedite this process.