Single Gun Tied to 34 Deaths in Ecuador

The gun - a 9-millimeter pistol - blazed a violent trail even by the standards of one of Ecuador's most dangerous neighborhoods, the Nueva Prosperina precinct of Guayaquil.

Shell casings from bullets fired by the weapon, recovered at the scenes of 27 separate violent incidents, were linked to 34 deaths, according to a police forensic unit. And a police forensic official said the authorities believe the pistol remains on the streets.

The havoc attributed to a single firearm exemplifies the challenges for President Daniel Noboa's crackdown on an explosion of violent crime and homicides since 2020, fueled by a sharp increase in smuggled weapons during the same time, many of them from the United States. Ecuador recorded 7,994 murders last year, a nearly six-fold increase since 2020.

Tracing the origins of bullets and guns could help authorities choke off trafficking routes as well as build forensic histories of illegal weapons for future prosecutions, police said.

Of the more than 40,000 guns seized since 2019, just 900 have been traced, Major Efrain Arguello, who heads a national forensic investigations unit, said.

The weapon used in Nueva Prosperina may belong to, or have been rented out, among five rival drug gangs fighting for control of the precinct, Arguello said.

Police are investigating killings, robberies and other violent incidents in connection with the same gun.

"A gun connected to 30 crimes means there isn't just an increase in trafficking, but in the circulation or internal sales of illicit guns," said Renato Rivera, the director of the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory research group.

The Pacific port city of Guayaquil is a hub for drug trafficking and the scene of turf wars between Mexican, Albanian and other foreign cartels that have led to a sharp rise in homicides.

Noboa in January designated 22 gangs - including the five operating in Nueva Prosperina - as terrorist organizations.