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Albania continues to be mentioned when it comes to crime in Latin America. Yesterday there was debate regarding a speech by the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister at the UN, where she accused the Albanian mafia. Today AFP has dedicated an article to football in Ecuador, which is under the terror of crime. Albanians also appear in this article.
In Ecuador, football is a deadly sport, with players competing in the shadow of match-fixing mafias and under the threat of a killer bullet.
Midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez, 31, was vacationing at his home near the Colombian border this month when a hitman approached him on a motorcycle and shot him in the head.
"Speedy," as he was known to his teammates, had played for Club 22 de Julio, a second-division team from Esmeraldas, and was one of three Ecuadorian professionals killed in the last month alone.
He was "a good guy who died because of betting," club employee Oswaldo Batallas told AFP. Gonzalez's death shocked the club and Ecuador, but was not a complete surprise.
Just a few days ago, other second division players, Maicol Valencia and Leandro Yepez, were shot dead in a seaside hotel.
Valenica died at the scene, Yepez managed to get to the hospital but did not survive. Both played for Exapromo Costa.
Days before his death, Gonzalez had received dire warnings about what was to come. His car was shot at and his mother received threats. Then, a mobster with ties to online betting allegedly pressured him to lose a match, which ended in a 1–1 draw.
Since the country has become an important transit center for Colombian cocaine, it has attracted drug traffickers and gangsters en masse.
Competition between local groups linked to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, Italy's Andrageta, the Albanian mafia and a host of others has transformed Latin America's safest country into one of its deadliest.
Murder, extortion and trafficking have flourished, and no industry has been left untouched, including football. According to a recent UN estimate, worldwide, illegal sports betting is believed to earn gangs around $1.7 trillion a year.
In India, an entire cricket tournament with fake teams was invented to extract money from Russian players.
In Ecuador, as in many countries, the connection between sports betting, both legal and illegal, is strong. About a dozen professional teams are supported by online betting firms.
In 2023, US Ambassador Michael Fitzpatrick warned that drug cartels were using football clubs to launder money. Carlos Tenorio, who played 50 games for Ecuador and appeared at the 2006 World Cup, told AFP that it was time to break the link between betting and football.
Experts say second division teams are vulnerable because of low salaries. Once players play by the rules, escape from mafia control is almost impossible. / Adapted from AFP
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