Two criminal leaders involved in invasion of a TV channel in Ecuador are captured in Spain

Ecuadorian police reported this Wednesday that two alleged leaders of a criminal gang linked to an assault on a television station earlier this year were captured after an operation in Spain, where they were held with false documents.

The leader of the criminal group Los Tiguerones, known as “Comandante Willy”, and his second-in-command and brother Alex were captured with the collaboration of the Spanish Civil Guard, police said in a post on X.

Ecuadorian authorities do not include surnames when naming suspects in active criminal cases, but local media identified them as William and Alex Alcívar.

The detainees were clandestinely with false documentation in Spain and had an international arrest warrant, according to the police.

The brothers would be involved in placing car bombs, contract killings, extortion and a attack broadcast live to the TC television studio in the city of Guayaquil, the largest in the Andean country, in January of this year.

During the raid, which was broadcast nationally, viewers saw about 13 men wearing balaclavas and armed with guns, grenades and dynamite, harass staff who huddled on the studio floor.

The police then rescued the staff and arrested the men.

The attack led the government to identify 22 gangs as terrorist organizations that will be pursued by the army in a broad offensive against crime.

The Tiguerones is one of 22 groups that, according to local media, are responsible for drug trafficking and extortion in the coastal provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas in the South American country.

The brothers are also accused of involvement in the murder of an Ecuadorian prosecutor who was investigating their crimes, police added.

The Spanish Civil Guard said the arrests took place in Segur de Calafell, a small Catalan town about 60 kilometers west of Barcelona.

“The investigation began after obtaining information that indicated that this leader had been living in Catalonia for years,” he added in a statement, ensuring that the captured leader had continued directing the activities of his organization from Spain.

Ecuadorian police later reported that the two captured had a “luxurious life in Spain” and that they are managing the return of the detainees to the South American country.

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