A total of 180 people have been arrested in Ecuador on the sixth day of the nightly curfew, which is in effect in nine of the 24 provinces and four municipalities in order to combat crime, the National Police reported this Saturday.

Pablo Davila, General Commander of the Police, specified that 150 of those captured were people who did not comply with the curfew, which is in effect from 11:00 p.m. (04:00 GMT) to 5:00 a.m. (10:00 GMT) the following day, and which has been in place from May 3 to the 18th of this month.

The remaining 30 people are linked to different crimes, including trafficking of substances subject to inspection, robbery, carrying and possession of weapons, and extortion.

Likewise, the seizure of 29 firearms and 79.63 kilograms of drugs, the recovery of 5 vehicles and 13 motorcycles, and the retention of 7 vehicles and 35 motorcycles were preliminarily reported, the Police indicated.

20 raids were carried out and 8 criminal logistics infrastructures were affected within the framework of the nightly curfew.

So far in 2026, the Government has declared two periods of nightly curfew. The first extended during the second half of March in the provinces of Guayas, El Oro (bordering Peru), Los Ríos, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

The second, between May 3 and 18 in the four provinces mentioned as well as in those of Manabí, Santa Elena, Pichincha (whose capital is Quito), Sucumbíos and Esmeraldas, the latter two bordering Colombia and key in drug trafficking routes.

The restriction also applies in the municipalities of La Maná (Cotopaxi), Las Naves and Echeandía (Bolívar) and La Troncal (Cañar).

Ecuador has been living since 2024 under a state of “internal armed conflict” declared by President Daniel Noboa to intensify the fight against criminal gangs, which he began to call “terrorists”. Despite this, 2025 closed with a record number of homicides in Ecuador, with around 9,300, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.

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