Inside Ecuador's most brutal gangs: How three bloodthirsty mobs - including one with links to a Mexican cannibal cartel - are battling for control in spiralling turf wars from beheadings to gun massacres

>Mexican cannibal cartel

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12885917/Inside-Ecuadors-brutal-gangs.html

• Backed by cartels in Colombia and Mexico, Los Choneros and the similar groups Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones have been fighting over territory and control

• Ecuador is in the thrall of gang wars and drug cartels fighting for control

A British millionaire and former diplomat was rescued on Wednesday after he was kidnapped in Ecuador, a country that is plagued with gangs and cartels.

Colin Armstrong, 78, was snatched from his villa alongside his girlfriend Katherine Paola Santos by 15 armed men on Saturday morning. Before Wednesday, he was last seen being bundled into the back of a car.

Suspicion quickly fell on Ecuador's cartels as being behind the kidnapping, with one report suggesting he had refused to pay protection money.

Recent history would suggest there is good reason to suspect cartel involvement, with the country in the thrall of brutal bloodthirsty gangs who are battling for control in spiralling turf wars that seegun massacres and beheadings.

Ecuador is situated between world-leading cocaine producers Colombia and Peru, and has become a centre for foreign and domestic drug cartels blamed for a series of gruesome massacres, kidnappings and extortions.

Fishermen have been massacred at ports, maimed bodies have been hanged from bridges and riots have left hundreds dead in prisons.Prisons in particular have become a hotbed of violence, with the cartels fighting for power inside the country's jails, from which they then exert vast influence.

Since 2018, the national murder rate has more than quadrupled, soaring from six to 26 per 100,000 inhabitants - a rate that places it in the worst 15 countries. The country's National Police tallied 3,568 violent deaths in the first six months of this year, far more than the 2,042 reported during the same period in 2022.

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(me) >>20121785

Moar pics from the article

• The brutal Los Tiguerones gang have been linked to Mexico's Jalisco New Generation Cartel members (pictured), one of the most powerful and feared cartels in the world

• Last year it emerged the CJNG gang was forcing new members into cannibalism and had started sharing videos of gang members feasting on the hearts of their enemies

• The CJNG gang has become one of the most dominant cartels in the country and operates in at least 35 states across Mexico and Puerto Rico, but also has a keen interest in Ecuador

• A bag of human remains was found having fallen from a rope suspending it from a bridge in the city of Quevedo in one of the many instances of gruesome, public violence in the country

• Bodies have been publicly hanged in Ecuador amidst the violence. One of the bodies seen dangling in Esmeraldas was low enough to smash into any car passing under the bridge

<whew, lads

Man killed, woman wounded in shooting inside Ocala, Florida, mall

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-killed-shooting-ocala-florida-mall-rcna131049

The gunman is believed to have fled the scene and is still at large, according to police, who said they believe the shooting may have been targeted.

A man died and a woman was wounded when a shooter opened fire inside a mall in Ocala, Florida, on Saturday, police said.

When officers arrived at Paddock Mall, they found one man killed in a common area, the Ocala Police Department said on Facebook. Police believe the shooter targeted the victim.

The woman was hospitalized and was being treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to her leg, the department said in a news conference. She is expected to make a full recovery, according to police.

“It’s the worst. The worst thing we can imagine right now at this time of the year. … Somebody has suffered a loss in their family,” Police Chief Michael Balken said at the news conference. “It’s a horrible time of year for this to happen ever, but it is especially sad during the holidays.”

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>Paddock Mall

In Connecticut, a rare election do-over could oust a sitting mayor

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/election-redo-rare-connecticut-mayor-rcna129735

The race is among three recent election redos across the country, raising eyebrows among experts who worry such contests may become more common.

(pic) Joe Ganim, mayor of Bridgeport, Conn., during a hearing in Bridgeport Superior Court on Oct. 17.Ned Gerard / Pool via AP

In January, voters in Bridgeport, Connecticut, will head to the polls for an unusual contest: a court-ordered redo of the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.

The Jan. 23 election will determine whether Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim fairly won his party’s nomination for mayor. If he loses, the city will have another mayoral general election in February, with his rival running as the Democratic nominee.

Ganim won in the September Democratic primary for mayor by 251 votes, but opponent John Gomes quickly alleged election fraud, releasing surveillance video of a Ganim supporter allegedly dropping stacks of absentee ballots into a drop box.

In Connecticut, there are strict laws on who can return a voter’s completed ballot, and the practice of collecting large numbers of ballots and returning them for others — often called ballot harvesting — is illegal.

In early November, a state judge said there was “shocking” evidence of wrongdoing — enough to call into question the results of the primary race. The judge ordered a new primary election, while acknowledging that he couldn’t stop the general election from taking place days later, which Ganim won.

Ganim has led the city on and off for decades: He served five terms as mayor before he was convicted of corruption crimes in 2003, and then was elected twice more after his release from prison. He won again in November, but he’ll need a third victory in January to secure his eighth term.

Ganim did not respond to a request for comment, but he has accused his rival of similar election wrongdoing.

“I own the fact that the court found people connected with my campaign engaged in serious voting irregularities,” Ganim told reporters in December, according to the Connecticut Mirror. He also demanded his opponent admit that “multiple people associated with his campaign engaged in clearly unlawful ballot behavior in the primary as well.”

In an email to NBC News, Gomes said that the city and mayor had declined to present any evidence of the alleged wrongdoing in court, even after subpoenaing and interviewing Gomes supporters.

“The City defendants could have compelled their testimony and they voluntarily chose not to do so. The City defendants could have introduced any relevant video and also chose not to do so during the court hearing. In fact, they withdrew their defense that the Gomes campaign committed misconduct, and did not raise it in any post-trial briefing,” he wrote in a statement.

The race is one of three election redos that have taken place this year or will next year, raising eyebrows among experts and advocates who worry that election do-overs — an incredibly rare recourse — may become more common as more candidates litigate election results.

In November, voters in Presque Isle, Wisconsin, held a court-ordered election do-over in a nonpartisan town chair contest over irregularities in the tight race, which had a one-vote margin of victory.