Police in Ecuador, a country that has become a logistics hub for the cocaine trade, seized nearly 14 tons of drugs on Thursday destined for Central America, the United States and Europe, authorities announced.
“During the “Grand Jericho 35” operation, 42 searches were carried out in several provinces of the country, resulting in the arrest of 28 people and the seizure of 13.6 tons of drugs,” wrote on the social network X (ex-Twitter) Interior Minister Juan Zapata .
The operation required a year-long investigation with “information sharing with Mexico, Colombia and the United States,” according to Zapata.
Rifles, submachine guns and pistols were also confiscated. Thirty-three other people were arrested in previous raids.
The searches announced Thursday took place in eight of the country’s 24 provinces, where drug trafficking and criminal violence are surging uncontrollably.
Since 2021, more than 500 tons of drugs have been confiscated in the country, while the number of murders has increased at the same time.
Between 2018 and 2022, the number of homicides quadrupled to a record 26 per 100,000 inhabitants. For the current year, experts estimate the rate of violent deaths at 40.
According to police, the dismantled gang had “international connections” and included Ecuadorians, Colombians and Venezuelans who were involved in smuggling “alkaloid substances from Colombia.”
The drugs, stored in containers at ports, crossed the Pacific on boats departing from the provinces of Manabí (southwest) and Esmeraldas (northeast, bordering Colombia).
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a drug exporter due to its privileged location on the Pacific. The traffickers are linked to gangs with an international focus, such as the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels.