[CUENCAHIGHLIFE] When Dashi Ergys was shot to death in an upscale Guayaquil restaurant in January, the media provided little information about him other than that he was Albanian. Despite the fact that he appeared to be specially targeted, many people assumed he was a tourist who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.It was more than a month later that a National Police commander revealed in comments during a radio interview that Ergys was under investigation for drug trafficking and that he was probably part of an Albanian mafia operating in Guayaquil, Manta and Esmeraldas, involved in shipping illegal drugs to Europe.
According to Colombian criminologist Rafael Santos, Ergys’ murder and the revelation that the Albanian mafia is operating in Ecuador is only part of a much bigger picture. “There is a great deal of background to the story that is mostly unknown to the public,” he says. “First, there is a turf war underway between the Mexican cartels and the criminal gangs they control, and the Albanians. A large percentage of the murders in Guayaquil and Manta are a result of the conflict.”