The Chone Killers have embodied the mutation of Ecuador’s organized crime landscape from low-level street gangs to sophisticated, extremely violent mafia groups. Originally a street gang that joined forces with the Choneros drug trafficking group, the Chone Killers have emerged as a major criminal force in their own right, mainly dedicated to extortion, kidnapping, drug dealing, and contract killings in the coastal province of Guayas.
While not reaching the national influence of other criminal groups like the Choneros, Lobos, and Tiguerones, the Chone Killers’ penchant for extreme violence, defined by its rivalry with the Latin Kings, makes it a significant obstacle to citizen security in Ecuador.
History
The Chone Killers emerged from youth street gangs based in Guayaquil, a port hub and the country’s largest city. They mostly consisted of former members of the Ñetas, a gang founded in Puerto Rico’s prisons in the 1980s that quickly expanded to the mainland United States. In the 1990s, Ecuadorians deported from the United States established chapters of the Ñetas in their home country that soon included thousands of members. Many Ñetas dedicated themselves to drug dealing and other low-level criminal activities, often clashing with members of other street gangs for territory.
At the start of his term in 2007, former President Rafael Correa launched a peace process with the gangs. His goal was to eliminate inter-gang conflicts, which had led to spiking homicide rates. While the process was ultimately successful in reducing violence, not all members stopped criminal activity. One such figure was Terry Israel Camacho, alias “Trompudo,” a leader of the Killers, a Ñetas faction in Durán, a municipality located across the Guayas River from Guayaquil.
In the early 2010s, Trompudo’s Ñetas cell encountered a rising criminal force within the prison system: the Choneros. To fuel their expansion, the Choneros turned to members of the Ñetas and other street gangs for manpower, among them Trompudo. For the Killers, an alliance with the Choneros meant new levels of wealth and power. Meanwhile, for the Choneros, the Killers provided them access to Durán, a strategic drug trafficking transit point on the doorstep of Guayaquil’s port terminals.
Now under the Choneros umbrella, the rebranded Chone Killers in 2020 launched a bloody war in Durán, targeting members of the municipality’s other main criminal actor and the Ñetas’ old archenemy, the Latin Kings.
The murder of Choneros leader Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña,” in December 2020 rocked the Choneros organization, leading to the breakup of the group as various leaders blamed each other for the beloved gangster’s death. In the chaos that followed, the Chone Killers joined other former Choneros factions, the Lobos and the Tiguerones, in an alliance called New Generation (Nueva Generación), a reference to its alleged drug trafficking ties to Mexico’s Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG). But, peace talks between the former factions in 2022 led to the Chone Killers eventually retaking their alliance with Choneros leader, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito.”
Amid the chaos erupting at the national level, the Chone Killers conflict with the Latin Kings gained intensity, eventually pushing Durán to the top of the region’s most violent cities in 2023. Local media sources reported how the violence had turned personal in mid-2023, with leaders of both groups blaming the other group for the murders of close family members. In 2024, violence in Durán continued, despite the government frequently deploying the military to the municipality to combat the problem.
Leadership
The Chone Killers were led by Trompudo and his brother, Antonio Benjamín Camacho, alias “Ben 10,” until hitmen murdered both in Cali, Colombia in December 2024, local media reported. However, shortly after the attack in January 2025, Durán’s police chief confirmed to InSight Crime that Ben 10 died in the attack, while Trompudo survived.
The Camacho brothers may have previously maintained hierarchical control over the organization. But the Chone Killers have since become more horizontal, with neighborhood leaders exerting significant influence over operations in their own territories. This has also resulted in violence between chapters of the group. The fragmentation of the gang may have been exacerbated by the government’s military crackdown on crime in 2024, which put Trompudo and Ben 10 near the top of its crowded most-wanted list and forced them out of Durán.
Now, with the confirmed death of Ben 10 and possible death of Trompudo, it remains unclear who will take their place. A prime candidate is renegade Chone Killers leader, Julio Alberto Martínez, alias “Negro Tulio,” who has been operating with increasing autonomy since 2023 and has increasingly defined the group’s operations. After orchestrating a series of high-profile assassinations of public officials in 2023 and 2024, Negro Tulio was arrested in May 2024 in Panama.
A subsequent August 2024 operation in Durán exposed how the leader had continued to direct a network of corrupt municipal officials in the municipality from behind bars. By controlling these positions, he was able to access lucrative public contracts, track the movements of law enforcement, and carry out criminal activity with impunity.
Geography
The Chone Killers’ activity is limited to Ecuador’s coastal province of Guayas. While they are mainly concentrated in the municipality of Durán, local chapters also exist in the nearby municipalities of Guayaquil, Samborondón, and Daule. Ongoing battles for territory with the Latin Kings and other Guayaquil street gangs means their zones of influence are constantly shifting.
Within the prisons, the Chone Killers once controlled a pavilion in Guayaquil’s Litoral Penitentiary, but were moved by authorities in a November 2022 mass transfer to the adjacent La Regional prison, a Choneros stronghold.
Allies and Enemies
The Chone Killers’ main enemy is the Latin Kings. The two groups have been locked in a brutal territorial battle in Durán since at least 2020 that spiked in intensity in 2023. Multiple massacres of suspected gang members in 2024 suggest the conflict is continuing.
The Chone Killers maintain fluid alliances with Ecuador’s larger mafia groups. In the strategic municipality of Durán, the group is well-positioned to provide security and specialized services to cocaine traffickers, helping them to transport and store the drug. However, in a 2024 InSight Crime investigation in Durán, sources questioned whether the Chone Killers play a role in transnational cocaine trafficking.
Prospects
Rampant corruption and a deteriorated social fabric in Durán will continue to provide Chone Killers chapters with sources of revenue, money laundering, and new recruits. As the August 2024 operation in Durán demonstrated, sending Chone Killers leaders to prison is not enough to completely curb their operations.
However, the assassination of Ben 10 and the capture of Negro Tulio in 2024 were big hits to the Chone Killers’ leadership structures. This could cause more fragmentation, resulting in the break up of the group. The group’s hyper-violent nature and reliance on predatory crimes could also mean it will struggle to maintain a strong, sustainable grip on the communities it controls.
Featured image: Ñetas symbolism appears in Chone Killers graffiti in Durán (X @FiscaliaEcuador)