The arrest of the Ecuadorian Tiguerones leaders could further divide the gang

The leader of the Tiguerones, one of Ecuador’s most powerful and violent criminal groups and a key link in the international cocaine supply chain, has been captured in Spain, potentially accelerating the group’s splintering.

William Alcívar Bautista, alias “Willy” or “Negro Willy,” was taken into custody along with his brother Álex Alcívar Bautista, alias “Ronco,” in a joint operation by Spanish and Ecuadorian police in the northeastern coastal city of Tarragona, deputies of Tiguerones. Press reports indicate that the brothers were living in Europe using forged documents.

The Tiguerones gained international notoriety when young masked and armed men allegedly belonging to the gang carried out an attack on a live television news broadcast in January 2024, part of the unrest in Ecuador that made headlines around the world. The events of those days became a symbol of the South American country’s descent into criminal violence and chaos. Shortly afterwards, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa declared that Ecuador was in an “internal armed conflict”.

Like many of Ecuador’s organized crime structures, the Tiguerones’ origins lie in the prison system, where Willy worked as a prison guard.

SEE ALSO: Durán: An Inside Look at the Explosion of Organized Crime in Ecuador

There he began working with Jorge Luis Zambrano, aka “Rasquiña” or “JL”, the leader of the Choneros, and eventually founded the Tiguerones as a Choneros faction. The murder of Rasquiña at the end of 2020 led to a fracture of the Choneros. The Tiguerones joined a breakaway coalition of former Choneros factions and turned against the remnants of the network. By 2023, they again allied themselves with the Choneros and entered into a new conflict with their former coalition partners, the Lobos.

Willy is believed to have escaped Ecuador sometime after his release from prison in 2018. His brother Ronco was released in 2021 and assumed the role of Tiguerones regional commander for the south of the city of Esmeraldas, according to Esmeraldas police.

Willy’s gang has been involved in power struggles that have made Esmeraldas one of Ecuador’s most violent cities, and is behind some of the worst cases of mass killings and violence in Ecuador’s crime wars to date.

InSight crime analysis

Recently, the Tiguerones’ strength and influence have declined, due in part to the impact of Ecuador’s militarized security crackdown, which Noboa initiated in January 2024.

Attacks by the rival Lobos gang in their home neighborhood of Esmeraldas have further weakened the criminal group’s cohesion, according to law enforcement and community sources who spoke to InSight Crime during recent fieldwork in the city. According to media reports, the group was also weakened by the formation of splinter groups in the city of Guayaquil.

SEE ALSO:Choneros profile.

Despite his absence, Willy, who has become something of a criminal icon in troubled Ecuador, was a unifying figure. His arrest – along with that of his natural successor Ronco – could accelerate the gang’s fragmentation process, which in turn could lead to more violence on the streets of Ecuador’s cities as the gang’s rivals seek to capitalize on the weakness of the Tiguerones and the remaining leaders battles to fill the leadership vacuum left by Willy’s arrest.

Featured Image: Tiguerones-style graffiti in the city of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Photo credit: Ecuador221.com