Ecuador

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Ecuador-based Los Lobos Drug Trafficking Organization (Los Lobos) and its leader Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre (also known as “Pipo”). Numbering thousands of members, Los Lobos has emerged as Ecuador’s largest drug trafficking organization and contributes significantly to the violence gripping the country. This action builds on Treasury’s February 7 designation of Los Choneros—a prominent Ecuadorian drug gang—and comes as Ecuadorian criminal organizations backed by Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and Sinaloa Cartel continue to drive violence and instability in Ecuador. Los Lobos began as a group of hitmen working under their now-rival gang Los Choneros. The 2020 assassination of a Los Choneros leader left a power vacuum that Los Lobos and its allies filled by coordinating attacks against Los Choneros’ fragmented leadership, culminating in prison riots that left scores of inmates dead. Los Lobos has been involved in drug trafficking, murder-for-hire, and illegal gold mining and additionally provides security services for Mexico’s CJNG in support of CJNG’s efforts to dominate cocaine trafficking routes in Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil. Los Lobos is also accused of orchestrating the assassination of 2023 Ecuadorian candidate Fernando Villavicencio. In September 2023, the Department of State issued an award of up to $5 million for information on unknown subjects responsible for Villavicencio’s murder. Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre (Chavarria Barre) is a top leader of Los Lobos. During his imprisonment between 2011 and 2018, Chavarria Barre gained notoriety while managing a group of hitmen who operated as a sub-component of Los Choneros and assumed the name Los Lobos or “the wolves” before their rise as a powerful drug gang in their own right. In 2022, Chavarria Barre ordered the murder of his rivals Leandro Norero and Samir Maestre to seize control of their valuable drug trafficking routes. Chavarria Barre remains at large, with public reports suggesting he may have fled Ecuador under an assumed identity. OFAC designated Los Lobos pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14059 for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production. OFAC designated Chavarria Barre pursuant to E.O. 14059 for being or having been a leader or official of Los Lobos.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2394

2024-06-06

US

Foreign Terrorist Organizations Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 597

OFAC-horizontal

Terrorism

Blocking Property

Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) are foreign organizations that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended. FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business.

SDN