Hundreds of handguns, shotguns, and rifles were placed inside the coffin of a dead Ecuadorian cartel lord known as “El Fatal” so that he would be “armed to the teeth in the afterlife.”
According to La Nacion, on Wednesday, while receiving a usual vehicle wash in Moroche with his 20-year-old daughter, 39-year-old Julian Sevillano, the alleged head of “Los Fatales,” was suddenly ambushed by gunmen.
According to the outlet, both were killed in a storm of more than a dozen rounds that were allegedly fired by rival gang members.
However, Sevillano’s family declined to hand over the remains to the local police and instead whisked them away for a sizable funeral the next day, according to El Universo.
Images that have gone viral depict Sevillano in an open casket as others rush to pack it with powerful weapons, ostensibly so that he would be “armed to the teeth in the afterlife and could defend himself.”
In the face of reports of continuous violence and probable vengeance, Ecuadorian police and troops stood vigil.
The competing group seems to have followed Sevillano’s movements before his murder and was aware that he would be at the car wash that morning, according to locals.
A Mocache neighbor who wished to remain anonymous told El Universo, “It seems that they had followed his movements. Julián always came to wash the car in the morning, and his enemies took advantage of that.”
Other locals said to the source that the murderers rode motorcycles but chose to approach the car wash on foot in order to avoid “raising suspicion.”
Sevillano had a history of murder, thus the local police suspect he may have been murdered to exact revenge for crimes he had previously committed.
In 2005, he was detained on suspicion of killing Mocache’s deputy mayor Bolvar Cordero Candelariz, 57, and his son Yogar Cordero Molina, 35, but was only freed a few months later.