The Ecuadorian military has rescued 49 miners who were kidnapped by Los Lobos, one of the South American nation’s most ruthless gangs.
Troops were walking inside a forest in the rural town of Santa Martha, 217 miles south of the capital city of Quito, where they found the group in a makeshift camp on Wednesday, July 3.
The military said the soldiers initially were met with gunfire from at least 23 Los Lobos members before they fled. No injuries were reported.
According to the Military, they later found a camp covered with tarps and poles where the miners were seen kneeling on the ground with their hands resting over their necks.
During the operation, troops recovered a haul of weapons and mobile phones.
The troops also found the bodies of five people who had been previously killed at the camp. Four of the bodies had been dismembered.
Los Lobos is one of the 22 crime gangs in Ecuador designated as terrorist groups in the South American country.
In June, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Los Lobos and its leader Wilmer ‘Pipo’ Chavarria.
The criminal organization, which is comprised of thousands of members, was identified as being Ecuador’s most prominent drug trafficking organization and fueling violence across the country.
‘Drug trafficking groups with ties to powerful drug cartels threaten the lives and livelihoods of communities in Ecuador and throughout South and Central America,’ said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson, in a statement.
