The Criminal Creep of Ecuador’s Gangs Into Peru

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As unknown men marched through a rural indigenous community in Peru’s Amazonian province of Condorcanqui, residents looked on with a mix of confusion and surprise.

One of the men held what appeared to be a shovel, while another carried a sack over his shoulders as the group descended a hill through the community, a January 17 Facebook video from a local development organization shows. The men were heavily armed, alleged another post from the organization, showing high-powered rifles the community seized from the group.

Days after the post, Francisco Yampis, a mayor of another town in Condorcanqui, which lies on Peru’s border with Ecuador, said it was the Choneros, one of Ecuador’s largest criminal groups, who’d crossed the border.

“They’ve entered more than 30 kilometers [into Peru],” Yampis said on Peruvian radio show Exitosa, noting the group’s illegal mining interests in the area.

The Choneros’ purported invasion in Condorcanqui, laden with uncertainty, is representative of Ecuadorian groups’ shadowy — and largely unconfirmed — presence in Peru.

Still, various factors ranging from the pull of Peru’s criminal economies like drug trafficking and illegal mining, to the push of Ecuador’s security crackdown mean Peru could prove fertile ground for Ecuadorian criminal groups to expand their presence in other countries.

Ecuadorian Groups: Another Bogeyman? Local media and security experts have warned of the presence of Ecuadorian gangs in Peru, though the lack of official confirmation makes their true influence difficult to pinpoint.

In addition to the incursions of the Choneros in Condorcanqui, news reports dating back to 2023 point to the presence of the Tiguerones gang in Lima, the Peruvian capital. There, they were allegedly involved in wars with Venezuelan megagang Tren de Aragua over sex trafficking markets.

Other media reports note the presence of the Lobos, Ecuador’s largest, and perhaps most powerful, criminal group. In August 2023, Peruvian police arrested a Lobos hitman in Aguas Verdes, a Peruvian border town, after he crossed from Ecuador, allegedly to carry out an assassination.

One-off arrests and conflicts, however, do not prove that a group maintains a permanent presence in an area, and without official confirmation, it’s difficult to prove. Peruvian police refused InSight Crime’s request for comment.

Still, multiple security experts said Ecuadorian groups’ presence in Peru is growing, especially in the border region.

For Pablo Zeballos, a Chilean security expert who has studied Peru extensively, the expansion of Ecuadorian groups into the country reflects a natural extension of activities in a border region that has long been forgotten by both nations, more than a planned strategy by group leaders.

“It is a traditional trade and smuggling border,” he told InSight Crime. “You cannot differentiate where Peru begins and Ecuador ends.”

This expansion could be facilitated by the lack of clear competitors. Peru lacks a tradition of strong criminal groups like those that have emerged in Colombia, Brazil, and now Ecuador. Tren de Aragua took advantage of the lack of competition to consolidate its influence in many parts of Peru, and these gaps could now be facilitating the arrival of others.

“It’s absolutely disorienting,” said Rubén Vargas, Peruvian security expert and former Minister of the Interior, referring to Peru’s criminal landscape.

Drug Trafficking Push And Pull While their presence may still be obscure, Peru could prove an attractive drug trafficking territory for Ecuadorian groups, who have been squeezed at home by the government on one side, and an increasingly conflictive gang landscape on the other.

Cocaine seizures in Ecuador reached a record high in 2024 amid a military crackdown on organized crime. Increased law enforcement presence in ports, as well as the more competitive and fragmented nature of the underworld, may have pushed Ecuadorian traffickers to look for other options.

SEE ALSO: Jailhouse Massacre in Ecuador Illustrates Rapid Criminal Evolution

“There is more pressure, more intelligence work by the police, and more persecution of criminal gangs in Ecuador, so there’s a balloon effect,” Pedro Yaranga, a Peruvian security expert, told InSight Crime.

The port of Paita in northern Peru, close to the border with Ecuador, is particularly attractive for cocaine trafficking, and has seen large drug seizures recently, some of which have uncovered cocaine from Colombia, not just Peru, Vargas told InSight Crime. This would suggest that it came to Peru through Ecuador.

“Paita is one of the most vulnerable ports and one of the least frequented by the Peruvian authorities,” he said.

Gold Rush Ecuadorian groups may also be seeking to move into Peru’s illegal gold economy, taking advantage of porous borders and the opportunities presented by South America’s largest illegal gold hotspot.

Peru accounts for 44% of all of South America’s illegal gold exports, more than any other country and well above Ecuador’s 9% share, according to estimates by the Peruvian Institute of Economics (Instituto Peruano de Economía).

Experts blame Peru’s illegal mining problem on its Integral Mining Formalization Registry (Registro Integral de Formalización Minera – Reinfo), which permits ancestral and informal miners to continue mining while awaiting formalization by the government. While the measure protects small-time miners historically dedicated to the craft, it has become vulnerable to exploitation by criminal groups, who look to the poorly-regulated registry to legitimize their illicit extraction.

“These are communities that are very, very weak in being able to deal with the entry of criminal actors and who want to boost their local businesses and mining,” Zeballos told InSight Crime.

SEE ALSO: Earnings From Illegal Gold Hit Record High in Peru

Some illegal gold mined in Peru has historically been exported to Ecuador, taking advantage of consistently limited state capacity to confront the issue. A February 2024 report from Peruvian outlet El Comercio suggests that this is still a common modality. But, the sheer size of illegal gold flows in Peru could mean that Ecuadorian groups will also look to Peru as an important conduit to launder their illegally extracted gold.

Ecuadorian groups may even be mirroring strategies they used back home to make inroads into the Peruvian industry.

Vargas, Yaranga, Zeballos, and other experts noted the presence of Ecuadorian gangs in providing security to bands of miners operating without authorization in Peru. This reflects trends in Ecuador, where the Lobos started in illegal mining by first providing security to groups of miners, later expanding to completely take over their informal mining operations.

Porous borders, lack of state presence, and corruption in Peru’s border regions make an expansion of mining activities likely. Yampis, the mayor from Condorcanqui, reflected these concerns.

“We are forgotten by the state,” he said on Exitosa’s radio show. “They do absolutely nothing.”

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