At least 5 people dead in Ecuador blast
15 Aug 2022 09:45am
Ecuador blast takes 5 lives and injures 16 -123RF Photo
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Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo blamed "organised crime" involved in illicit drug trafficking, reported Anadolu Agency.
"Organised-crime mercenaries, who have long narcotised the economy, are now attacking with explosives,” Carrillo said at a press conference. "It is a declaration of war on the state,” he added.
The country's National Risk and Emergency Service confirmed that eight homes and two vehicles were also destroyed by the explosion. Authorities said the number of victims could rise in the coming hours.
Unknown suspects reportedly threw a bomb at the site as part of a confrontation between criminal gangs fighting for control of drug dealing in the city.
According to recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Ecuador is the country with the third highest number of drug seizures in the world after the United States and Colombia. The South American nation accounted for 6.5 per cent of the cocaine seized worldwide in 2020.
Organised crime groups are fighting for control of territories, authorities report.
Prisons have also suffered from an increase in drug-related crime. Some 400 inmates have died in Ecuador's prisons in recent months due to rampant violence between criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking, while police are fighting rising crime. - BERNAMA
