An Ecuadorian beauty queen was assassinated after her Instagram post of a plate of octopus ceviche led gunmen to the restaurant where she was dining.
Police are investigating the shooting of 23-year-old Landy Párraga amid media speculation the hit was ordered by the widow of a drug lord with whom she is believed to have had an affair.
The beauty queen and social media influencer was gunned down shortly after her name appeared in a corruption inquiry linking judicial officials to organised crime.
Párraga had just posted a photo of the ceviche she was about to eat for lunch to her 173,000 followers on Instagram when two armed men burst into the restaurant in Quevedo and fired several times at her.
She was reportedly shot three times and died shortly after.
Párraga, who took fifth place in the 2022 edition of Miss Ecuador, is said to have been the lover of Leandro Norero, a married drug trafficker who was killed in a prison riot 18 months ago.
Investigators found photos of the beauty queen and evidence of the lavish gifts he gave her, including apartments and cars, on Norero’s phone.
‘If my wife comes across anything about her, I’m screwed’, Norero had said to an alleged criminal associate, Helive Ángulo.
Ángulo is one of some 50 people being prosecuted as a result of Operation Metastasis, an investigation into a criminal network accused of corrupting Ecuadorian state officials.
Among those charged are judges accused of granting gang leaders favourable rulings, police officials suspected of tampering with evidence and delivering weapons to prisons, and the former director of Ecuador’s prison authority, who is accused of giving special treatment to a powerful drug trafficker.