In the last five years, Ecuador has gone from being a drug transit point to one of the hemisphere’s most important international narcotrafficking hubs, shipping cocaine from Colombia and Peru to North America and Europe, InSight Crime, an organization that studies organized crime in Latin America, indicated in a report. Ecuadorian authorities have been relentlessly combating Mexican, Colombian, European, and other transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that have embedded themselves in the country to commit crimes.
“Ecuador has always been a transit point for drugs, never a producer country. But that grew abruptly in recent years, becoming a strategic territory for the cocaine market value chain,” Daniel Pontón, a professor at the School of Security and Defense of Ecuador’s Institute of Higher National Studies, told Diálogo in a January 2025 interview. “This means that drug trafficking in Ecuador is growing more and more, offering logistics services such as storage, warehousing, transportation, the introduction of narcotics on ships, and a series of mechanisms that criminal organizations use to introduce illegal products into the main consumer markets.”
As numerous TCOs use the region for their illicit activities, they also compete for strategic narcotrafficking routes. The route that connects producer countries Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, passing through land via Brazil or Venezuela, and by river through Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina bound to North Africa, was among those that expanded during 2024, the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies of the Spanish government indicated in a report.
Another important route uses Ecuadorian ports, which handle a high volume of cargo. It is estimated that 50 percent of the tonnage of drugs trafficked northward leaves through the country’s busiest port: Guayaquil. When there is high port movement, the cargo is contaminated with narcotics, making it difficult to trace due to the high number of containers, Ecuadorian news site Primicias reported.
Authorities, however, are working full steam ahead to achieve resounding successes. In late 2024, for instance, Spain, with the support of Ecuadorian intelligence, made the largest cocaine seizure in the country’s history. This operation is the second largest intervention in all of Europe — the largest in a single container — and one of the most significant worldwide, with the seizure of 13 tons of cocaine hydrochloride that were hidden in boxes of bananas from Ecuador, a major daily export product of that country.
More recently, in March, an extensive international investigation supported by Europol and the Ecuadorian National Police led to the dismantling of a large-scale cocaine supply network that resulted in the seizure of 73 tons of cocaine across Ecuador and Europe. This network primarily trafficked the drugs from Ecuador in sea containers to major European ports.
Production chain and shifting threat
Colombia continues to be the world’s largest producer of coca. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) World Drug Report 2025, which features the latest available data, indicates that in 2023, coca cultivation in Colombia increased by 10 percent, harvesting a total of 253,000 hectares, to reach a production of 2,664 tons of pure cocaine. This massive volume translates directly into the violence seen in Ecuador. “A third of this drug produced in the Colombian departments near Ecuador is trafficked across those borders, that is, some 390 tons of cocaine each year,” Ecuadorian news site Nexo Digital reported.
“There is always a significant risk in this situation, since coca is produced on the Colombian side of the border, where there is obviously a high level of vulnerability,” Pontón said. “Organized crime in Ecuador has specialized: Its territory is a kind of ecosystem for exporting drugs, but not for their production. Under that logic, even if Ecuador does not have the conditions to grow crops, we have to look at it very carefully using systematic monitoring, because there is always going to be a risk.”
All-round partnership
Organized crime in the region not only engages in drug trafficking; it has also extended to human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, illegal mining, illegal logging, wildlife trafficking, and smuggling. These activities come with violence, homicides, and forced recruitment.
As the Ecuadorian government sought help in early 2024 from partner nations in its war against organized crime, the United States promptly responded and reiterated its support throughout 2025. This support has shifted from initial material aid to advanced legal and operational integration.
The most critical legal measure is the terrorist designation used by both Ecuador and the United States. Ecuador designated 22 criminal organizations as terrorists in early 2024. More recently, the United States designated Ecuadorian gangs Los Choneros and Los Lobos as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). This move fundamentally changes the legal landscape of the fight against TCOs.
Legal disruption has been paramount. For instance, in July 2025, Los Choneros leader José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar was extradited to the United States to face federal drug and gun charges, marking a historic use of judicial cooperation to dismantle TCO leadership.
Support also comes in the form of material and financial support. In September, the U.S. government announced nearly $20 million in new security funding, for which it dedicated $6 million for drones for the Ecuadorian Navy,signaling a commitment to enhancing maritime interdiction capabilities. Additionally, the U.S. Coast Guard reinforced this effort with the delivery of two of its 33.5-meter patrol boats to the Ecuadorian Navy, strategic equipment designed to enhance maritime interdiction capabilities.
Training and technical cooperation have also accelerated across several domains. In early 2024, subject matter experts from U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) and the U.S. Coast Guard initiated specialized exchanges focused on immediate operational needs, such as port security and maritime interdiction. More recently, in August 2025, the Ecuadorian 9th Special Forces Brigade trained with U.S. forces on air assault operations; simultaneously, specialized exchanges between U.S. Marines and the Ecuadorian Marine Infantry were conducted in Jaramijó. The U.S. continues to support Ecuador’s Financial Analysis Unit (UAFE) and local law enforcement by providing specialized training, with support from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
The long-term success against TCOs hinges on sustained political will and coordinated international pressure, underpinned by the consensus that these gangs are terrorist threats. The combined legal, financial, and operational efforts of Ecuador and its partners establish a powerful precedent for how the hemisphere can effectively target the leadership and dismantle the economic lifelines of organized crime.
Note: This article is a revised and updated version of a report originally published in January 2025.
