Ecuadorean gang leader killed in teddy bear ambush at Guayaquil airport

The ambush

Two young men waited at the arrivals terminal of José Joaquín Olmedo airport holding stuffed toys and bouquets. When the victim stepped out, one attacker pulled a gun from behind a teddy bear and shot him point-blank. Passengers scattered in panic. One bystander was wounded and a man dragging a suitcase collapsed as the shooting unfolded.

Help! Help! My father!

Another traveller told TC Televisión: "We heard eight or ten shots, we were scared."

High-priority target

Interior minister John Reimberg identified the dead man as Carlos Alberto Suástegui Villanueva, leader of the Los Águilas gang in El Triunfo. The group, a faction of the Los Choneros cartel, was branded a terrorist organisation by President Daniel Noboa in 2024. Suástegui had four police records, three arrests and prior investigations for murder, illegal weapons and criminal association.

Teenagers arrested

Police detained two minors born in 2010 and 2011 at the scene and seized two firearms. The suspects were isolated and handed to juvenile authorities. The arrivals hall stayed closed for more than two hours while forensics teams worked.

State of emergency

The killing came one day after Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency in 10 of Ecuador's 24 provinces, including Guayas. The decree cited 879 homicides in those provinces between 1 May and 12 June. The measures give security forces extra search powers, but critics say they have not curbed the structural drivers of crime.

Epidemic of violence

Ecuador, sandwiched between cocaine producers Colombia and Peru, has become a trafficking corridor to the US and Europe. The homicide rate reached 51 per 100,000 people in 2025 according to InSight Crime, a 550% jump in five years and the highest in South America. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, 1,600 people died violently.