Ecuador’s war against black market weapons

HISTORY: Ecuador has seen an explosion in violent crime and murder in recent years, fueled by a sharp increase in arms smuggling.

Last year, nearly 8,000 murders were recorded in the South American country, about six times as many as in 2020.

The wave of violence sparked a crackdown on black market arms trafficking, and Reuters gained a rare insight into Ecuador’s efforts to trace bullets, a key element of the fight against crime.

Major Efrain Arguello, head of a national forensic investigation unit, told Reuters that work was progressing slowly, with only 900 of the more than 40,000 weapons seized since 2019 having been located.

He said tracing the origin of bullets and weapons could help authorities cut arms smuggling routes.

But two senior police officials told Reuters that Ecuador was struggling to implement these plans due to a lack of funds, forensic equipment and trained personnel.

At Quito’s forensic police building, a technician looked through the city’s only ballistic microscope and analyzed cartridge cases and bullets from five weapons used to kill four people.

Police told Reuters that there were only eight bullet-tracking microscopes in Ecuador, a country of 17 million people.

According to police figures, police seized nearly 10,000 firearms across Ecuador last year, more than half of which were revolvers or pistols. That’s almost twice as many as in 2019.

Police say at least a quarter of the weapons they intercepted were purchased legally in the United States, but there are generally no records of legal entry into Ecuador.