A recent wave of violence against the traffic authorities in Ecuador exposes the importance of these entities for criminal groups who seek to deepen their control over the streets of the country.
Early in the morning of June 15, three people attack Two traffic agents in the southern coastal city of Machala, injuring one and killing the other. A few days earlier, on June 6, the killers murdered Víctor Francisco Villa Gómez, a traffic officer in the coastal city of Manta. Villa Gómez was the twelfth employee of the municipal transport agency of Manta (Empresa Pública Municipal Movilidad de Manta) Primicias.
See also: Durán: A window on the explosion of the organized crime of the equator
Violent incidents against public transport officials have also occurred in DuránNext to Guayaquil, the most populous city in the equator. Kelvin Jarama, an official of the Durán Transit Authority (Autridad de Tránsito de Durán – ATD) and Tiktok influencer with nearly 300,000 subscribers, was assassinated during a car shootout outside the entity of the entity in February.
“Knowledge wins corruption,” reads Tiktok from Jarama organicWhere he published educational videos on motorcycle safety and answered questions from subscribers on traffic fines.
Durán also saw a series of violent attacks against the traffic authorities in 2024. In September, unknown attackers burnt A truck belonging to the National Committee for Common Transport of the Ecuador (Comisión de Tránsito del Equator – CTE) on the main road of Durán, while the offices of the ATD underwent a “armed attack“In May, although no one was injured.
In all, at least 39 violent incidents against traffic officials or infrastructure has occurred in Ecuador since January 2024, leading to 25 total deaths, according to Insight Crime Supervisor supplemented by the data of the location and data of the Armed Conflict Event (ACLED).
Of these attacks, 15 were carried out against the CTE, while the others were against the municipal transport agencies. The CTE is in charge of traffic flows on national highways and around border areas, while transit agencies manage many traffic tasks at the municipal level, including fines, maintenance of vehicle registers and the response to accidents. They also manage several million dollars budgets and have their own procurement processes.
Attacks against transit officials have been overwhelming concentrate On the equator coast, which was also the epicenter of its homicide crisis. The Ecuadorian government security response has so far failed to slow violence, which has reached historic highs in 2025.
The criminal call for transit agencies
Many attacks on public transport officials are the direct result of the key role that traffic agencies play in the criminal world of the equator. Criminal groups have forged networks of allies within transit entities and even placed their own members in key positions.
The initiates of the gangs take advantage of the close relations of transit agencies with the police and the military, accessing information on security operations. In addition, part of the fines – and bribes – collected by traffic cops is transmitted to criminal groups. Official vehicles are also important assets for gang operations.
“They have vehicles allowed to move to the city carrying who knows what: weapons, drugs”, ” said Interior Minister John Reimberg on June 27, speaking on a local talk show.
In Durán, criminal actors infiltrated the transit authority to pursue another treasure: public contracts. An insistence crime in 2024 investigation I discovered how a company belonging to the family of Washington Sellán Hati, aka “Washo”, an eminent Durán drug trafficker, won an ATD contract for the construction of a vehicle retention center in 2023. After the murder of Washo that same year, Julio Alberto Martínez, alias “Negro Turio”, a leader of the Durán, based on Durán Killers Gang, also won the ATD contracts, said prosecutors, based on the messages between the crime boss and the deputy director of the ATD.
These contracts are a lucrative target for criminal groups that seek to siphon funds and whiten money. By ensuring that gang -related companies are gaining contracts, criminal groups receive government’s own payments, while doing little or no work on the project for which they have been contracted.
“They have already realized that it is the quickest way to make money,” said an entrepreneur from Durán, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told Insight Crime in 2024.
The transit agency of Choneros and Manta
The criminal infiltration of public transport agencies is perhaps the most obvious in Manta, the most dangerous city in the equator for traffic officials.
Manta is the basis of the house of ChonerosOne of the most powerful criminal groups in the country. Choneros were continuously linked to corruption regimes within the Manta Transit Agency, leading Reimberg to claim that the entity “works for choneros”. The agency did not respond to requests for comments from Insight Crime.
The former employees have included parents of the leader who died Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquina“And the current chief Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias”Fito. “When the security forces captured Fito on June 25 near Manta, the chief of Choneros was found with Cristian Mendoza, an employee of the Manta Transit agency for 13 years.
See also: The fall of Fito: what it means – and does not do it – for the underworld of the equator
“This cannot be considered an isolated episode,” said Marciana Valdivieso, the mayor of Manta, referring to Mendoza’s arrest in social media on June 29 job. “For years, (the MANTA transport agency) has been infiltrated and weakened by the uninteresting networks for the principles of the public service.”
The range of advantages provided by the transit authorities means that the positions are strongly contested, criminal groups targeting agents of rival groups integrated into agencies. The local media attributed the MANTA attacks to battles between the choneros and the rival groups for an influence within the agency. Meanwhile, other attacks on public transport officials around the equator could be attributed, as in the case of Tiktok Jarama’s influencer in Durán, to the elimination of officials in key positions that do not meet the requirements of gangs.
However, other attacks seem to be acts of passion or revenge without links with organized criminal activity. Public transport officials, who do not carry weapons in the exercise of their functions, are more defenseless than other security forces in these situations.
Featured image: the Minister of the Interior Instruiter, John Reimberg, is held outside the Durán transit authority offices following a police raid on July 7. Source: Teleamazonas
