Ecuadorian security forces seized 6,980 kilograms of cocaine in five operations, between October 28 and November 8, 2021.
On November 8, the Ecuadorian Police (PE, in Spanish) confirmed the seizure of 1,000 kg of cocaine in Playa Murciélago, Manabí province, when authorities captured a speedboat 40 nautical miles off the coast.
On November 3, in El Carmen, Manabí province, the PE reported seizing 2,434 kg of cocaine with the support of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces’ Joint Command. “We found the drug in a truck with a false bottom; we dismantled an organization that engages in storing and distributing cocaine to Central America and Europe,” PE commander Pablo Ramírez Erazo said.
On October 31, in Carchi province, Colonel Richard Karolys, PE commander, reported via Twitter the seizure of 1,000 kg of cocaine that criminals were transporting in a truck on the road from Ipiales, in Colombia’s Nariño department, to Quito, Ecuador.
The Ecuadorian Office of the Attorney General confirmed the seizure of 1,546 kg of cocaine that criminals had hidden at the Pascuales Bus Terminal, Guayaquil, in another operation carried out October 29. Authorities found the shipment in a container bound for New Zealand.
“The drug packages had different logos, meaning that these organizations have come together to fill a container and send it abroad,” Line District General Edwin Noguera, national director of Police Special Operations, said.
On October 28, the Ecuadorian Office of the Attorney General reported the seizure of 1,000 kg of cocaine in the San José de Naranjal municipality, Guayaquil province. The drug was in a truck carrying bananas bound for Chile.
The PE reported that between January 1 and November 4, 2021, it has seized 159 tons of narcotics and dismantled 159 narcotrafficking organization from January 1 to November 4, 2021. Agents seized 25 tons of drugs in October alone.
