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02-07-2024, 04:26 PM
By Alexandra Valencia
June 30, 20246:38 AM GMT+8Updated 2 days ago
QUITO, June 29 (Reuters) - The gun - a 9-milimeter pistol - blazed a violent trail even by the standards of one of Ecuador's most dangerous neighborhoods, the Nueva Prosperina precinct of Guayaquil.
Shell casings from bullets fired by the weapon, recovered at the scenes of 27 separate violent incidents, were linked to 34 deaths
......
an explosion of violent crime and homicides since 2020, fueled by a sharp increase in smuggled weapons during the same time, many of them from the United States. Ecuador recorded 7,994 murders last year, a nearly six-fold increase since 2020.
......
Tracing the origins of bullets and guns could help authorities choke off trafficking routes as well as build forensic histories of illegal weapons for future prosecutions
......
But it is slow work.
Of the more than 40,000 guns seized since 2019, just 900 have been traced
A LOT MORE AT: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/o...024-06-29/
June 30, 20246:38 AM GMT+8Updated 2 days ago
QUITO, June 29 (Reuters) - The gun - a 9-milimeter pistol - blazed a violent trail even by the standards of one of Ecuador's most dangerous neighborhoods, the Nueva Prosperina precinct of Guayaquil.
Shell casings from bullets fired by the weapon, recovered at the scenes of 27 separate violent incidents, were linked to 34 deaths
......
an explosion of violent crime and homicides since 2020, fueled by a sharp increase in smuggled weapons during the same time, many of them from the United States. Ecuador recorded 7,994 murders last year, a nearly six-fold increase since 2020.
......
Tracing the origins of bullets and guns could help authorities choke off trafficking routes as well as build forensic histories of illegal weapons for future prosecutions
......
But it is slow work.
Of the more than 40,000 guns seized since 2019, just 900 have been traced
A LOT MORE AT: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/o...024-06-29/
