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A video has been released that shows a ‘kamikaze’ drone fitted with explosives getting blown to bits on the roof of an Ecuador prison that holds some of the country’s worst druglords. The ‘controlled explosion’ took part of the prison’s roof along with it.

This is yet another violently weird incident in a country that is slowly sliding into chaos according to the world’s media.

Police special forces carried out a controlled explosion of the drone Tuesday after it landed on the penitentiary known as “La Roca,” Interior Minister Juan Zapata said in a statement. Ecuador’s prison service didn’t respond to questions regarding current inmates of La Roca, which is in Guayaquil on the nation’s Pacific coast.

The institution has held ringleaders of prison riots that have left more than 430 inmates dead since 2021.

After the drone was detected early Tuesday, inmates at risk of injury were transferred elsewhere within the complex that includes several jails, Zapata said.

The procedure successfully avoided casualties, and “there was material damage” while neutralizing the danger, he said in follow-up comments.

By using a scanner, security also detected and foiled an attempt to smuggle guns and ammunition hidden in a canister of gas into the prison.

Violence between warring groups of cocaine traffickers has engulfed Ecuador in recent years, with the homicide rate climbing to 27 people per 100,000 last year, topping Colombia and Mexico.

Crime became the main issue in the presidential election, even before candidate Fernando Villavicencio was gunned down in August after vowing to fight the drug mafias.

Watch the boom:

Equipo antiexplosivo del #GIR neutralizó el dron para desconectar la fuente de energía del artefacto explosivo. Las PPL que se encuentran en la “Regional” cercanas al perímetro de “La Roca” fueron trasladadas para precautelar su seguridad.
Se estableció un PMU. pic.twitter.com/sQLbjrZ47W

— Juan Zapata (@CapiZapataEC) September 12, 2023

[source:mybroadband]