Five severed human heads were discovered suspended by ropes on a beach in southwestern Ecuador on Sunday, in a horrific scene connected to the ongoing sweeping across the nation, according to reports.
The murders occurred during a surge of brutal violence associated with drug trafficking and organized crime, which has intensified throughout Ecuador in recent years.
reported that the macabre finding highlights the methods employed by criminal organizations vying for dominance over territory and smuggling corridors, particularly along the nation’s coastal regions.
Law enforcement officials stated the heads were located on a popular beach in the modest fishing village of Puerto Lopez, situated in Manabi province.
Photographs circulated by Ecuadorian news outlets and social media platforms depicted the severed heads fastened with ropes to wooden stakes driven into the sand, with blood evident at the location.
A wooden placard placed near the heads bore a menacing message directed at suspected extortionists who have been targeting area fishermen.
The note cautioned individuals demanding what are known as “vaccine cards”—protection money routinely extracted by criminal gangs—that they had been singled out, according to the report.
Officials indicated the exhibition was probably the outcome of a dispute between rival criminal factions functioning in the region.
with connections to international cartels operate along Ecuador’s shoreline and have utilized fishermen and their vessels to move illegal cargo, per local authorities.
President Daniel Noboa initiated a military operation against gang activity and in several provinces, Manabi included, dispatching the .
Nevertheless, his initiatives have not prevented violence from mounting, with law enforcement boosting patrols and monitoring in Puerto Lopez after recent slaughters in the province, according to the Associated Press.
During 2025, a minimum of nine individuals, among them an infant, were slain in that location in an incident authorities attributed to confrontations between neighborhood gangs as well.
As earlier documented by Digital, during 2025, internal warfare among struggling for supremacy over zones in Ecuador’s principal urban center, Guayaquil, resulted in almost twenty-four fatalities.
Ecuador concluded the year with a of 52 per 100,000 inhabitants, as reported by the Organized Crime Observatory, marking the most lethal year ever documented.