Safety · Guayaquil
Ecuadorean gang leader killed in teddy bear ambush at Guayaquil airport
Carlos Alberto Suástegui Villanueva, a 39-year-old Ecuadorean gang leader, was shot dead outside Guayaquil's international airport by two teenagers who hid a pistol behind a teddy bear and flowers.
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In brief
Two young men waited at arrivals with stuffed toys and flowers, then shot the gang leader at point-blank range.
Carlos Suástegui, 39, led Los Águilas, a faction of the Los Choneros cartel, and had multiple criminal records.
Police detained two minors aged 15 and 16 and seized two firearms shortly after the shooting.
The killing occurred one day after President Daniel Noboa declared a 60-day emergency in 10 provinces, including Guayas, due to surging violence.
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.
- Ecuador
- 51 per 100,000
- Latin America
- 18 per 100,000
- World
- 5.6 per 100,000
Data from the article text
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Sources and context
- BBCEl líder de una banda criminal que fue asesinado en una emboscada con flores y peluches en el aeropuerto de Guayaquil
- vrtnws.beMet wapen verstopt achter knuffels en bloemen: vermoedelijke leider van Ecuadoraans drugskartel doodgeschoten aan luchthaven | VRT NWS Nieuws
- N-tv"Acht oder zehn Schüsse gehört": Ecuador: Drogenboss an Flughafen erschossen
- BBCGang leader shot dead in flower bouquet ambush at airport
- Carlos Alberto Suástegui Villanueva
- 39-year-old leader of the Los Águilas gang shot dead at Guayaquil airport
- John Reimberg
- Ecuador's interior minister who confirmed the victim's identity and the arrests
- Daniel Noboa
- President of Ecuador who had designated Los Águilas a terrorist group and declared the latest state of emergency
- Places
- Colombia
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