Six Los Lobos gang members charged in the Fernando Villavicencio assassination

Prosecutors have formally charged six members of the Los Lobos gang with the August 2023 assassination of Fernando Villavicencio. Villavicencio, who was a candidate for president, was gunned down following a political rally August 9 in Quito.

On Tuesday, soldiers guard inmates at the Cotopaxi prison where Fernando Villavicencio’s August assassination was planned.

According to prosecutor Ana Hidalgo, Los Lobos leader Carlos Angulo, alias El Invisible, planned and ordered the murder from his cell at Cotopaxi prison. Also charged and considered the “co-author” of the crime, was Laura Castillo, alias  Flaca. The other defendants are Erick Ramírez, Castillo’s driver; Víctor Flores, Castillo’s bodyguard; and Alexandra Chimbo and Óscar Fierro, who tracked Villavicencio’s movements on the day of the murder.

At the hearing, prosecutors revealed that Castillo and Ramírez were arrested hours before the murder in an unrelated anti-drug investigation. They were driving a stolen vehicle and were wearing Villavicencio campaign t-shirts. According to investigators, the two had visited the rally site the night before the assassination, reporting the information back to Angulo.

Investigators said Angulo sent a cell phone video messages to Johan Castillo, the Colombian hitman who fired the shots that killed Villavicencio. Castillo was wounded in a gunfight with police following the assassination and died the next day in police custody.

A cell phone belonging to Castillo was recovered at the scene and showed numerous calls and text messages from Angulo.

According to prosecutors, Angulo lived in a “luxury suite” at the Cotopaxi prison, where he had a high-speed internet system. According to records, Angulo installed the system with the knowledge of prison officials and paid $560 a month for the service.

In January, the armed forces disabled the internet connection and dismantled Angulo’s prison suite. Angulo was transferred to a maximum-security prison in Guayaquil.