Ecuador Authorities Confiscate Pigs, Fighting Cocks From Prison

View of pigs confiscated by members of Ecuador’s security forces in a high security jail, in Santo Domingo, Ecuador, in this image released on June 16, 2023 and obtained from social media. (Fuerzas Armadas del Ecuador via Twitter/via Reuters)

Ecuadorean security forces have confiscated pigs, fighting cocks, and more than two dozen bladed weapons, among other items, from a high-security wing of Bellavista prison in the city of Santo Domingo, the country’s military said on Friday.

Police and operatives of the SNAI prison authority were shown wheeling out two pigs from the prison in images shared by Ecuador’s military in a message posted on Twitter.

The authorities also removed 12 fighting cocks, 26 bladed weapons, 16 electrical items, and other objects, they said in a tweet, without saying how the animals ended up there.

Ecuador’s prisons are plagued by poor conditions and violence, the latter leading to the deaths of hundreds of inmates.