Latest news "Ecuador wins today": boss of the Los Lobos gang caught
The leader of the Ecuadorian crime syndicate Los Lobos has been arrested in Spain. Wilmer Geovanny Chavarría Barré, alias "Pipo", was caught in a joint operation by the investigating authorities of Spain and Ecuador, announced Ecuadorian Interior Minister John Reimberg. Chavarría Barré is the most dangerous criminal in the region and is responsible for at least 400 murders.
16.11.2025, 17:21
SDA
The boss of Los Lobos faked his own death in 2021, obtained a new identity in Venezuela, then applied for a Colombian passport and finally entered Spain in 2022 to continue his criminal activities there, Reimberg said. He had set up a drug trafficking ring with links to Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and maintained relationships with Colombian and Mexican drug cartels.
Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa celebrated the joint investigative success on the news platform X. "Global cooperation is necessary to fight transnational crime," he wrote. "Today the mafia is on the retreat. Today Ecuador is winning."
Los Lobos is one of the most powerful gangs in the South American country and is involved in the smuggling of cocaine to the United States and Europe. The US government declared the crime syndicate a foreign terrorist organization in September. Noboa declared the gang, together with other criminal groups, to be a non-state warring party that should be eliminated.
Ecuador, once a relatively safe country, is in the midst of a serious security crisis. According to the Observatory of Organized Crime, the number of murders rose by 47% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year, reaching the highest level in the country's recent history. Several gangs are fighting for control of the lucrative drug business.
