Images on social media showed five heads tied with ropes to two wooden posts on the beach in Puerto Lopez, a popular whale-watching destination in the southwest.

Beside them a wooden board bore a message threatening gang members who extort protection payments known locally as "vaccine cards".

"The town belongs to us. Keep robbing fishermen and demanding vaccine cards, we already have you identified," it read.

President Daniel Noboa has launched an armed campaign against gangs, but two years of military activity have failed to stem the bloodshed.

At the same beach in December at least nine people including a baby were killed in violence that authorities blamed on clashes between local gangs.

Ecuador is a key hub for international drug trafficking, located between cocaine-producing countries Peru and Colombia.

It ended 2025 with a record homicide rate of 52 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Organized Crime Observatory.

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