[ad_1] 5 human heads had been discovered held on show at a vacationer seaside in Ecuador on Sunday, police mentioned, because the nation feels from a wave of gang violence.Pictures on social media confirmed 5 heads tied with ropes on two picket posts on the seaside in Puerto Lopez, a well-liked whale watching vacation spot within the nation's southwest.Beside them, a picket board bore a message threatening gang members who extort safety funds identified domestically as "vaccine playing cards"."The city belongs to us. Preserve robbing fishermen and demanding vaccine playing cards, we already have you ever recognized," it learn.On the identical seaside in December, not less than 9 individuals, together with a child, had been killed in violence that authorities blamed on clashes between native gangs. Ecuador ended 2025 as its most violent yr on report, with a murder charge of 52 per 100,000 inhabitants, based on the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime. President Daniel Noboa has pledged to combat felony organizations which have expanded their operations in Ecuadorian territory in reference to worldwide drug cartels. However two years of navy exercise have didn't stem the bloodshed.Since 2021, Ecuador has skilled rising felony violence by gangs working in coordination with Colombian and Mexican cartels concerned in drug trafficking.Strategically positioned between Colombia and Peru, two of the world's largest cocaine producers, it has turn out to be a significant transit hub for narcotics. Extra from CBS Information Go deeper with The Free Press [ad_2] Source link