Ecuador Gang Law Bill Would Jail Criminal Group Members Up to 22 Years

Ecuador · SECURITY

The Ley Antimafias would create a standalone crime of gang membership, but the bill still faces qualification, committee review and two plenary debates.

Ecuador’s ruling bloc has presented an Ecuador gang law to the National Assembly that would make membership in a criminal organization a standalone crime, punishable by up to 22 years in prison. The bill, known as the Ley Antimafias, was delivered on 2 June 2026 but has not been passed. It must still clear qualification, committee review and two plenary debates before it can become law.

What the Ecuador Gang Law Would Change

The Ley Antimafias — formally the Ley Orgánica Reformatoria a Varios Cuerpos Legales para el Fortalecimiento de las Capacidades Institucionales del Estado frente al Crimen Organizado — was presented on 2 June 2026 by Acción Democrática Nacional (ADN), the ruling bloc. Assembly vice president Mishel Mancheno sponsored the bill and delivered it to Assembly president Niels Olsen.

Its centerpiece is a new Article 369-A of the COIP, Ecuador’s criminal code. This article would establish the autonomous crime of membership in a criminal organization, meaning prosecutors could convict people for belonging to a gang even without proving a specific underlying offense.

The current Article 369 already punishes organized crime, sentencing leaders to 22 to 26 years and collaborators to 10 to 13 years. The new article is designed to widen the net and simplify prosecutions across every layer of a criminal group.

Ecuador has been battling organized crime groups tied to drug trafficking, and prison gang violence has repeatedly shaken the country’s penitentiary system. The government argues that existing legal tools are not enough to dismantle these structures.

Tiered Penalties Target Leaders and Financiers

The bill sets three penalty tiers for membership. Basic membership would carry 10 to 13 years in prison, while those performing operational roles would face 13 to 16 years.

Organizers, financiers and those exercising territorial command would receive the harshest sentences, of 16 to 22 years. The design reflects an effort to punish the money and command structures behind the gangs, not only street-level members.

Under the Ecuador gang law, the pretrial detention rules in Article 534 of the COIP would also become stricter, making it harder for accused members to await trial in freedom.

The tiered approach mirrors how prosecutors describe the gangs themselves: hierarchical organizations with financial backers, logistics operators and armed wings. By attaching years to each layer, the bill seeks to make every rung criminally costly.

New Crimes and Tougher Rules on Fuel Theft

Beyond membership, the bill creates new crimes of recruitment and of providing infrastructure to criminal organizations. The recruitment offense targets the gangs’ ability to replenish their ranks, while the infrastructure offense covers those who supply property, vehicles or facilities.

The recruitment provision is aimed at one of the gangs’ most documented practices: drawing in minors and young men in marginalized neighborhoods. Sponsors argue that cutting off the pipeline of new members is as important as jailing current ones.

Penalties for hydrocarbon theft would also increase. Fuel theft from pipelines has become a revenue source for organized crime in Ecuador, and lawmakers want to raise the cost of participating in that trade.

If the Ecuador gang law passes, membership would also serve as grounds for asset forfeiture, known in Ecuador as extinción de dominio. Seized goods could be sold early, before a final conviction, to prevent them from losing value.

Asset Forfeiture and Permanent Disbarment

The forfeiture provisions are among the most far-reaching in the text. Making membership alone a basis for extinción de dominio would let the state pursue assets tied to criminal structures without waiting for a conviction on a specific crime.

The early sale of seized goods is meant to stop criminal groups from simply waiting out proceedings while assets deteriorate or are hidden. Proceeds from those sales would be held while cases conclude.

Lawyers face their own deterrent. Any attorney convicted of organized crime or money laundering would be permanently disbarred under the bill, closing what sponsors describe as a channel of legal cover for the gangs.

Civil liberties questions are likely to surface in committee, particularly around early asset sales and membership-based forfeiture. The bill’s backers counter that Ecuador’s emergency requires tools that match the gangs’ financial power.

Long Road Ahead in the National Assembly

For all its scope, the bill remains a proposal. It was presented on 2 June 2026 and has not been approved. The Assembly must first qualify the text and then send it to committee review.

After committee, the Ecuador gang law must survive two plenary debates, with opportunities for amendments at each stage. Only after a second approval and presidential sanction would it enter into force.

That timeline matters for expectations. Ecuador’s security crisis has created public pressure for fast action, but the legislative calendar means any changes to the COIP are months away at the earliest.

Supporters frame the bill as the legal backbone of the state’s response to organized crime. Whether it emerges from the Assembly intact, amended or stalled will test the ruling bloc’s ability to build majorities.

In the meantime, the presentation itself sends a political signal: the ruling bloc wants ownership of the security agenda and is willing to put a detailed text on the table.

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Sources

• www.eluniverso.com

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