QUITO.- The armed forces of Ecuador They removed hundreds of meters of internet and satellite television cables in one of the country’s dangerous prisons under the control of drug trafficking gangs, authorities reported this Monday.
In images shared by the army, soldiers are seen equipped with ladders to climb and walk on the roofs of the prison in the city of Machala (south), where they remove and cut the swarms of connections.
The soldiers disabled around 1,500 meters of UTP, Ethernet-type, and coaxial cables, which connected the pavilions with the outside world, in a country immersed in a wave of violence coordinated from prisons by criminal organizations.
According to the army statement, the wires were used to “presumably be able to plan illicit activities from inside” the prison.
Data from the 2022 prison census show that 17% of prisoners surveyed had had access to the internet during the last three months, while 19% had had access to a cell phone.
In operations and searches inside Ecuadorian prisons, the police frequently report the seizure of weapons, drugs and cell phones.
Prisoners can pay $10 a week to rent calls, and up to $3,000 to buy their own cell phone, according to the newspaper El Universo.
In Ecuador, about 20 organizations sow terror and use prisons as operations centers where they manage drug trafficking, the proceeds of crime, and fight to the death with rival gangs.
A new drug attack broke out at the beginning of January in Ecuador. The takeover of a television channel by armed men, the escape of two criminal leaders and dozens of confrontations in the streets and prisons led President Daniel Noboa to declare an “internal armed conflict” against gangs linked to Colombian and Mexican cartels.
The day of violence left around twenty dead among police officers, prisoners and civilians, and more than 200 hostages inside the prisons for several days.
Source: AFP
