Daniel Lozano
Updated Friday, January 26, 2024-00:31
Ecuador 854 detained and seven dead in four days of war against drugs
Insecurity The Government of Ecuador affirms that with Noboa the daily average of violent deaths drops from 28 to six
The government of
Daniel Noboa
has scored one of the greatest triumphs in its crusade against drug trafficking with the
destruction of 21.5 tons of cocaine,
seized during an operation in the
Vinces canton,
near
Guayaquil.
The Armed Forces found themselves with a surprise they did not expect:
733 packages of drugs "encaletedos" (hidden) in a warehouse,
along with an arsenal of weapons and ammunition.
What looked like a small farm in
Estero Lagarto,
pigs included, turned out to be a surprising storage point, whose dismantling "represents a strong weakening of the operational, logistical and financial capacity of drug trafficking worldwide," the Armed Forces confirmed. The value of the seized drugs was one billion dollars.
Everything indicates that from the clandestine warehouse the drugs would be taken to the ports of Guayaquil, to be placed on ships leaving for the
United States
or
Europe.
The discovery of the cache also occurs with the presence of the delegation of
Washington
officials in the country, who have promised to reinforce the cooperation already in force, in addition to delivering outboard motors, trucks and other materials, valued at 2.5 millions of dollars.
The
Ministry of the Interior
informed the country that cocaine was destroyed on Thursday at a rate of less than two tons per hour with the encapsulation technique, by which
cocaine hydrochloride is pulverized
to mix it with cement, sand, glass and products. chemicals. This technique has been applied in the Andean country since 2022 thanks to US aid and is faster and
less harmful to the environment
than incineration.
Since the government decreed the "internal armed conflict" on the 9th of this month and declared the 22 local gangs that make up organized crime as terrorists, the
Security Block,
made up of military and police, has seized almost 36 tons of cocaine in the 44,000 operations carried out, in addition to 1,267 weapons and 5,243 explosives. In total, there are 3,611 detainees, including 237 suspected terrorists.
So far, the country mostly supports the government's firmness and the deployment of the military. According to the survey carried out by
Comunicaliza,
the acceptance of President Daniel Noboa, who is on an official trip to Spain, is 80%. The negative rating is 10%.
The blow against drug traffickers is of such magnitude that this stash of coca represents more than double what was seized in the largest shipment found in Spain, the 9.5 tons seized during Operation Nano on a ship in the port of Algeciras last year . The drug, of Colombian origin, traveled precisely from Ecuador in several
containers of bananas.