Quito — Eighteen inmates escaped the Cotopaxi Provincial Prison in southern Ecuador Monday through a 90-meter tunnel discovered beneath an outdoor workshop, triggering a national manhunt as authorities confirmed an armed convoy of more than eight vehicles was used to aid the escape. One prison guard was killed in the operation, Ecuador’s Interior Minister announced.
The tunnel, described by prosecutors as a “sophisticated engineering project” taking months to complete, emerged inside the prison’s metal workshop — a section inmates are permitted to access daily. It extended beneath the prison’s outer perimeter wall and surfaced in an abandoned building 400 meters from the facility’s main gate. The escape occurred between 2:00 and 3:30 a.m. local time while cameras in the workshop corridor were offline, according to the national prison director.
Armed Convoy and External Coordination
Security camera footage from a highway checkpoint 3 kilometers from the prison shows at least eight vehicles — including three SUVs with tinted windows and what appeared to be military-grade antenna arrays — waiting on a rural road during the escape window. Prosecutor Diana Salazar said the vehicles “coordinated with the tunnel operation” and were likely in position before the escape began.
Six of the 18 escaped inmates have been identified as high-profile members of the Los Lobos drug syndicate, currently the dominant cartel operating across Ecuador’s Pacific coast. The group had reportedly used prison labor to dig the tunnel over an estimated four-month period. Authorities said construction materials, including prefabricated wooden support frames, were smuggled into the workshop incrementally over weeks.
Manhunt and National Response
Ecuador’s President Noboa deployed the military to all national prison facilities and ordered a 72-hour emergency checkpoint operation across the provinces of Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, and Chimborazo. At least 340 additional police officers were dispatched to the region. The Interior Ministry placed the names and photographs of all 18 escapees on a national alert list and issued an international notification through Interpol for the six Los Lobos members.
Noboa, in a nationally televised address, called the escape “an act of war against the state” and said it exposed “rotten coordination” between criminal networks and prison administration. He announced the immediate suspension of the Cotopaxi prison governor and ordered a full audit of all workshop and construction permits across Ecuador’s 51 prison facilities. The European Union issued a travel warning for Ecuador’s Andean provinces Tuesday.
Diego Vargas, Media Hook.