More than 20 grenades have been seized in zone 8 in the last 12 months.
Last Tuesday night the residents of the mz. 1479 of block 10 of Bastión Popular, in the northwest of Guayaquil, again witnessed the detonation of an explosive device.
Is the fifth time this has happened in the last nine months.
This time two houses were affected. A neighbor, who avoided giving her name for safety, said that the explosion occurred in the middle of the street, however, the splinters fell on several houses. In one of the houses the device affected the ceiling of the kitchen and in the other the ceiling of a room, damaging a television and a mirror.
The owners of the buildings found round steel fragments that pierced the zinc plates. These were handed over to the Criminalistics experts so that they could be analyzed and the origin of the explosive investigated.
Neighbors mentioned that before the detonation, a block from the place, there was a shootout between gangs dedicated to micro-trafficking. They presume that these men launched the explosive to warn the enemy gang.
A week ago, in Block 9 of the Popular Bastion, they threw artisanal explosives against a house in the area for the second time. One of them exploded and affected the roof.
The same house was attacked with explosives last September. There lived a man who had just left the Penitentiary.
During 2021, between blocks 9 and 10 of Bastion, five explosive devices have been launched. None had exploded until the early hours of last Wednesday.
According to figures from the National Police, since January 2021 some 20 controlled explosions of grenades and other explosives had been carried out in Zone 8 (Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón).
Policemen are concerned about how organized gangs have access to weapons for military use that have miraculously left no injuries.
General Fausto Buenaño, Zone 8 Police Commander, indicated last year that these devices would enter through the southern border, which is why he stressed the importance of controlling clandestine crossings that are used by gangs.
The agents are also investigating whether these explosives are related to international cartels for the war to control drug trafficking in Guayaquil, since Intelligence presumes that since the first massacres in the prisons took place last February, in which 80 inmates died, the Mexican cartels they armed local gangs so they can defend themselves.
The Choneros work for the Sinaloa cartel, while the Tiguerones and Lobos work for Jalisco, Nueva Generación.
But from Mexico it would not only have supplied the Ecuadorian gangs with grenades, but also with the latest technology weapons, such as the rifles for military use found months ago in Los Vergeles, during the seizure of almost 10 tons of cocaine. (I)
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