Two brothers were shot dead on the morning of Monday, August 10, at the Las Piedras site on the E-15 highway between Esmeraldas and Rioverde, Ecuadorian police said.
The killings were reported at 10:09 a.m. after an alert about a person found dead on the main roadway. Police who arrived at the scene found a man of about 27 lying on the road with no vital signs, surrounded by roughly four spent shell casings.
Officers cordoned off the area and called in specialized units. While inspecting a nearby third-order access road, agents found the body of a second man, about 35 years old, in the brush roughly 300 meters away, along with about five spent shell casings. The second victim wore an electronic ankle bracelet on his right ankle, marked with the code number 001990.
Victims identified
Investigators from the National Directorate for Investigation of Crimes Against Life, Violent Deaths, Disappearances, Extortion and Kidnapping, known as Dinased, confirmed the victims as Eduardo Fabricio Angulo Sosa and Vicente Ramon Angulo Sosa. Vicente Angulo was known by the alias Comandante Vicente and had previously appeared in investigations and judicial proceedings, including a prior arrest linked to the canton of Camilo Ponce Enriquez.
In March 2024, he was captured in Ponce Enriquez, in Azuay province, and identified as a leader of the Los Lobos gang during a joint Armed Forces and police operation. Authorities said at the time he had directed illegal mining operations and extortion collections in that part of the Austro region and part of Zamora Chinchipe province. Weeks later, the government criticized a judge for releasing him under substitute measures after his defense cited health issues.
Forensic, Dinased and other police units responded to process the scene. The Esmeraldas district chief, Rodrigo Hidalgo, and the commander of the Esmeraldas Subzone, Richard Davila, were present during the preliminary investigation. Preliminary information indicates the Angulo Sosa brothers were traveling in an armored pickup truck with license plates from Manabi province and may have been intercepted before being killed.
Arrest in officer's killing
Separately, a joint operation by the National Police and the Armed Forces led to the arrest of a man suspected of involvement in the killing of a Dinased agent in Esmeraldas. That officer, 20-year-old operative technician Jorge Ramirez Vargas, was ambushed and shot dead by men on a motorcycle on October 5, 2024, on Luis Vargas Torres island in Esmeraldas while carrying out investigative work.
Two suspects identified by their initials, J.P.M., alias Abogado, and J.R.B., alias Banbon, were detained two days later, according to the Esmeraldas Joint Task Force. Police chief Richard Davila said the newly detained man, identified as Franklin C., has had an active arrest warrant since 2024 for Ramirez Vargas's killing. Police consider him a significant suspect and are examining a possible link to a weekend attack in the Come Nupa neighborhood that killed four people and wounded one woman on the night of Sunday, August 9.
