(Bloomberg) -- Police detonated an aerial drone carrying explosives on the roof of a prison in Ecuador holding high-profile inmates in a repeat of an attack in September 2023.
The police used 3 pounds of explosives to blow up the drone carrying 40 pounds of explosives as “a lesser evil” without inflicting structural damage on the roof, said General Victor Hugo Zárate, head of the national police, in an afternoon press conference in Quito.
Maximum-security La Roca, which is in Guayaquil on the nation’s Pacific coast, was holding leaders of drug gangs on which President Daniel Noboa declared a domestic war in January.
The 78 inmates were moved to a safe area ahead of the explosion and are in good condition. They won’t be transfered to other jails, Zárate said.
The incident is the most serious since the military took over jails as part of Noboa’s crackdown, ending rioting that had claimed the lives of more than 400 inmates.
Former Vice President Jorge Glas, detained in April in a controversial raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, is serving a sentence for corruption there.
The drone attack may have gone ahead to try to force the government to move the prisoners elsewhere or to allow them to attempt to escape, Interior Minister Monica Palacios said during the same press conference.
A year ago, La Roca was evacuated before the police detonated a drone that caused major damage to the roof. In the aftermath, drug lord alias Fito escaped, leading to the spiraling of the security crisis that triggered Noboa’s declaration of war six weeks into his presidency.
The government will in the short term deploy snipers to shoot down drones in case there is another attempt of this type in the future, Defense Minister Giancarlo Loffredo said. Ecuador is also seeking to buy technology to defend jails against drone attacks in the medium
(Updates throughout with official comments)
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