At the heart of the war against the black arms market in Ecuador

HISTORY: An explosion of violent crime and homicides has hit Ecuador in recent years, fueled by a sharp increase in smuggled weapons.

The South American nation recorded nearly 8,000 murders last year, about six times more than in 2020.

The surge in violence has sparked a crackdown on the black market for weapons, and Reuters got a rare glimpse into Ecuador's efforts to trace bullets, a key part of its fight against crime.

Major Efrain Arguello, who heads a national forensic investigations unit, told Reuters the work has been slow, as only 900 weapons have been found of the more than 40,000 seized since 2019.

He said tracing the origin of bullets and guns could help authorities shut down gun trafficking routes.

But two senior police officials told Reuters that Ecuador was struggling to achieve this due to a lack of funding, forensic equipment and trained personnel.

In Quito's forensic science building, a technician examined, through the city's only ballistic microscope, the shell casings and bullets from five weapons used to kill four people.

Police told Reuters that Ecuador has only eight bullet-tracing microscopes in a country of 17 million people.

According to police data, police seized nearly 10,000 firearms across Ecuador last year, more than half of them revolvers or pistols, nearly double the number seized in 2019.

Police said at least a quarter of the weapons found were legally acquired in the United States, but generally had no record of legally entering Ecuador.