Colombia Captures a Los Tiguerones Leader a Day After Washington Designated the Group
COLOMBIA · SECURITY
Key Facts
- —The capture Guido Fernando Rodríguez Vargas, alias Comandante 07, arrested in Soacha, Cundinamarca, on 10 September.
- —The operation Colombia’s national police worked with Ecuador’s Centro de Inteligencia Estratégica, under Operación Aqueronte.
- —The charges Homicide, organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion.
- —The role Described as the organisation’s principal transnational link inside Colombia.
- —The catch The United States designated Los Tiguerones a terrorist organisation on 9 September, the day before.
- —The record The organisation is linked to the armed takeover of TC Televisión in Ecuador in January 2024.
The capture shows what the Ecuadorian security crisis now looks like from Colombia: a neighbour’s gang running its money through Bogota’s outskirts.
Colombian police captured the man they describe as Los Tiguerones’ principal link in Colombia. The United States had designated his organisation as terrorist the day before.
Guido Fernando Rodríguez Vargas, known as Comandante 07, was arrested in Soacha on 10 September. Soacha is a large municipality on the southern edge of Bogotá.
Colombia’s national police worked with Ecuador’s strategic intelligence centre. The operation was named Aqueronte, after the river of the underworld.
What He Is Accused Of
The charges are homicide, organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion. That combination is standard for a senior figure in a transnational group.
Police describe his specific function as financial. He is said to have managed illicit revenue in border regions.
President Abelardo de la Espriella described him as one of the organisation’s principal transnational links. His formulation was that Rodríguez was responsible for managing illicit revenues.
His age was not published. Neither was the date of the warrant under which he was held.
Who the Group Is
Los Tiguerones is an Ecuadorian organisation, formed in the prison system of the coastal province of Esmeraldas. It expanded rapidly during Ecuador’s security collapse after 2020.
The group is one of several that fragmented from a larger structure and then fought each other. Ecuador’s prison massacres between 2021 and 2023 were largely battles between them.
It is linked to the armed takeover of the TC Televisión studios in Guayaquil in January 2024. That attack, broadcast live, is the single image most associated with Ecuador’s crisis.
Its business is cocaine moved through Ecuadorian ports, plus extortion and illegal mining. Esmeraldas sits directly on the Colombian border.
That border is why a capture in Colombia was always likely. The two countries share a frontier that neither has ever fully policed.
The American Designation
The United States State Department designated Los Tiguerones a terrorist organisation on 9 September. The stated grounds were drug trafficking and attacks on civilians, security forces and journalists.
Designation is primarily a financial instrument rather than a military one. It criminalises material support and exposes anyone transacting with the group to American sanctions.
The sequencing is notable and probably not coincidental. A designation on Monday and a capture in a neighbouring country on Tuesday suggests coordination rather than luck.
Washington has been designating Latin American criminal groups steadily through 2026. Eight Mexican organisations now carry the label, along with groups from Venezuela and Ecuador.
How Ecuador Got Here
Ecuador recorded one of the lowest homicide rates in South America as recently as 2017. It now has one of the highest, and the change took about six years.
Three things combined. Cocaine output in Colombia and Peru rose, Ecuador uses the US dollar, and its ports handle vast banana and shrimp exports.
Containers leaving Guayaquil for Europe are the single most valuable trafficking route in the hemisphere. The groups that fought for it were formed in prisons rather than in the countryside.
That distinguishes them from Colombian armed groups, which grew out of a political conflict. Ecuador’s have no ideology and no negotiating position, which makes them harder to bargain with and easier to designate.
Why Soacha
Soacha is not a border town. It adjoins Bogotá and has around 800,000 residents, many of them displaced by Colombia’s own conflict.
Groups operating in the capital have used it for decades. It offers anonymity, cheap housing and immediate access to Bogotá without being inside it.
For an Ecuadorian organisation it offers something else. A financial operator based near Bogotá is close to Colombian cocaine supply, to money-changing infrastructure, and to an international airport.
That is the structural point the capture illustrates. Ecuador’s gangs are not confined to Ecuador, and Colombian and Ecuadorian police now work as a single intelligence picture.
Nobody has been convicted. The charges are allegations and the account here comes from police and the presidency.
More: Colombia news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was captured?
Guido Fernando Rodríguez Vargas, an Ecuadorian national known as Comandante 07, arrested in Soacha, Colombia, on 10 September 2026.
What is Los Tiguerones?
An Ecuadorian criminal organisation that emerged from the prison system in Esmeraldas province and expanded during Ecuador’s post-2020 security crisis.
What does the US designation mean?
It criminalises material support for the group under American law and exposes anyone transacting with it to sanctions. It was announced on 9 September 2026.
Where is Soacha?
A municipality of around 800,000 people adjoining Bogotá to the south. It is a common base for groups operating in the Colombian capital.
Sources: Infobae Colombia, El Comercio.
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