With global cocaine production reaching a record estimated 4,100 metric tons in 2024, Ecuador has emerged as one of the principal departure points for cocaine shipments bound for international markets. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the country seized nearly 300 metric tons of drugs in 2024 — one of the highest totals in the world. During the first months of 2026 alone, Ecuadorian authorities had already confiscated more than 70 metric tons of narcotics.
“Ecuador’s location between Colombia and Peru, combined with its large commercial ports used to export bananas — of which it is the world’s leading exporter — creates ideal conditions for concealing cocaine within legitimate trade flows,” Antonio Nicaso, organized crime expert and professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, told Diálogo.
In recent years, investigations conducted in Ecuador, Colombia, and Italy have highlighted the increasingly important role played by operators linked to the Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, within the international networks connecting South American cocaine production to European markets. Rather than directly controlling Ecuadorian territory, these networks operate through financial, logistical, and commercial structures that link local criminal organizations, international intermediaries, and European buyers.
The international reach of these trafficking routes was underscored again in July, when Ecuadorian authorities seized 1.7 metric tons of cocaine hidden in a shipment of fruit bound for Denmark, reinforcing Ecuador’s importance as a logistics hub for cocaine trafficking to Europe.
The expansion of the ‘Ndrangheta in Ecuador is taking place within an increasingly integrated criminal ecosystem, in which the Calabrian mafia connects with local criminal organizations, Balkan networks, Mexican cartels, and European buyers. This convergence creates growing challenges for law enforcement in intelligence gathering, financial investigations, and international cooperation.
Ecuador: A platform for criminal globalization
As Nicaso explains, “In Ecuador, the ‘Ndrangheta does not directly govern the territory. Its primary role is that of an international broker, financier of shipments, guarantor of payments, and organizer of logistics to Europe.”
Its strength lies not in controlling cocaine-producing regions or local trafficking routes, but in its ability to coordinate different criminal networks, finance shipments, and connect South American supply with international demand.
“The ‘Ndrangheta occupies the highest level of the criminal value chain, where strategic decisions are made, shipments are financed, and access to international markets is secured,” the expert added.
Links with international criminal organizations enable local groups to expand their access to markets, financial resources, and international logistics networks, strengthening their ability to operate within transnational drug trafficking chains. In this context, the United States designated Los Choneros and Los Lobos as Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 2025, reflecting growing concern over the international reach of these criminal groups.
Particularly significant is the growing attention focused on the coastal province of El Oro. According to Colonel Renato González, commander of Ecuador’s National Police Zone 7, “Foreign criminal organizations such as the ‘Ndrangheta seek to exert influence over the corridors used to move narcotics.” Facing the Pacific Ocean and bordering Peru, El Oro serves as a natural corridor linking cocaine-producing areas to maritime routes bound for Europe.
Within this context, Puerto Bolívar has become increasingly strategic. As one of Ecuador’s principal banana export ports, it handles thousands of containers every year, a reality that criminal organizations exploit to conceal cocaine within legitimate commerce. That vulnerability was exposed once again in July, when Italian authorities seized 770 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas from Ecuador at the Port of Vado Ligure.
A transnational criminal ecosystem
The ‘Ndrangheta’s expansion in Ecuador depends on its ability to integrate with local criminal organizations, Balkan networks, and other Latin American actors. These connections facilitate the entire criminal supply chain, from cocaine procurement and port logistics to international distribution and money laundering.
“The links between the ‘Ndrangheta and Brazil’s PCC, as well as Los Choneros, Los Lobos, Los Tiguerones, Albanian criminal networks, and, above all, the world of Mexican organized crime, have been fully established, even from a judicial standpoint,” Nicaso said.
One of the most significant developments has been the evolution of Albanian criminal networks. Initially acting primarily as intermediaries between South American suppliers and European criminal organizations, they now maintain direct relationships with producers, port operators, and local criminal groups, greatly expanding their operational autonomy.
“They have succeeded in building networks with cocaine producers while also infiltrating the country’s ports,” Nicaso added.
Within this system, Ecuadorian groups provide territorial control and logistical support; Albanian networks play an increasingly important role in port and commercial operations; while the ‘Ndrangheta provides financing, access to well-established distribution networks in Europe, and international money laundering mechanisms. The result is a criminal structure that is increasingly resilient, diversified, and difficult to dismantle.
The criminal economy of the Colombia-Ecuador axis
The presence of operators linked to the ‘Ndrangheta in Ecuador extends beyond cocaine trafficking. Investigations conducted in several countries also point to the use of front companies to facilitate commercial transactions, conceal illicit activities, and give an appearance of legitimacy to part of the logistics used by criminal organizations.
The case of mafia boss Roberto Nastasi is emblematic. For years, he presented himself as an entrepreneur in Guayaquil’s home appliance sector. According to Colombian authorities, he used business structures to facilitate the purchase and shipment of cocaine to Europe and acted as a liaison between the ‘Ndrangheta and the Clan del Golfo.
This dynamic helps explain why the Colombia-Ecuador axis has become increasingly strategic for the ‘Ndrangheta. While Colombia remains the world’s largest cocaine producer, Ecuador provides access to international ports, well-developed commercial infrastructure, and maritime routes linking South America to Europe’s principal consumer markets.
The 2025 arrest in Colombia of Giuseppe Palermo, alias Peppe, considered by authorities to be one of the ‘Ndrangheta’s principal operators in Latin America, illustrates this regional dimension. According to Colombian police, Palermo coordinated the purchase of large cocaine shipments in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador before sending them to Europe. Months earlier, the arrest of Emanuele Gregorini, alias Dollarino, exposed the presence in Latin America of another major Italian mafia network involved in international cocaine trafficking.
A regional security challenge
The strengthening of the criminal ecosystem linking the ‘Ndrangheta with Ecuadorian gangs, Albanian networks, Mexican cartels, and Colombian armed groups represents a threat that extends far beyond drug trafficking. The risk is that Ecuador could evolve from merely a transit country into a permanent operational platform for global organized crime.
The influx of foreign criminal capital and expertise increases the operational capabilities of local organizations, fueling violence, extortion, and disputes over strategic logistics corridors and port infrastructure. At the same time, the ‘Ndrangheta helps consolidate an integrated criminal chain in which local and international actors cooperate ever more closely.
This model makes it more difficult to identify command structures and assign responsibility, fragments criminal activity, and increases the adaptability and resilience of criminal networks in the face of law enforcement operations.
To confront this challenge, international cooperation, intelligence sharing, and stronger collaboration between Ecuador and its international partners are essential to improving the regional response. In July, for example, the Ecuadorian Navy and U.S. Navy personnel conducted joint training and maritime patrols in Esmeraldas to strengthen maritime interdiction capabilities and operational coordination.
According to Nicaso, targeting the financial resources of criminal organizations is equally important. “Worldwide, authorities seize between 10 and 15 percent of the drugs but confiscate less than 1 percent of criminal assets.”
The challenge, therefore, is not simply intercepting cocaine shipments, but dismantling the financial systems, front companies, and money laundering mechanisms that sustain narcotics trafficking. Strengthening international cooperation, intelligence sharing, financial investigations, and port security will be essential to reducing the operational capacity of these networks and protecting the strategic corridors that support legitimate trade.
