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LATIN AMERICA |
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Ecuadorian
Police Break Up Ring, Seize Nearly 4 Tons of
Cocaine
QUITO – Police broke up a suspected drug
ring run by former Ecuadorian soldiers and
two Colombian civilians in an operation
across Ecuador that netted 3.83 tons of
cocaine, officials said.
The ring operated in Ecuador, Colombia,
Mexico, Spain and the United States, using
the largest laboratory yet found on
Ecuadorian soil to process the cocaine.
The National Police’s intelligence and drug
enforcement units conducted the joint
operation in Sucumbios, Pichincha, Cotopaxi
and Guayas provinces.
Five Ecuadorians and two Colombians were
arrested in the operation, media outlets
reported.
The cocaine, “which came from Colombia, was
moved via this country’s road network to be
stored in warehouses under the cover of fake
companies,” National Police drug enforcement
unit chief Joel Loayza said.
The ring was based in Quito, but it operated
a drug lab in La Mana, a district in
Cotopaxi province, producing an estimated
five tons of cocaine weekly, Loayza said.
Some of the packages of cocaine found at a
house raided in Quito bore the seal of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, guerrilla group, Teleamazonas
reported.
The FARC, Colombia’s oldest and largest
leftist guerrilla group, is involved in drug
trafficking, extortion and
kidnapping-for-ransom.
Investigators are trying to “verify” the
evidence to determine “which cartel or
organization these drugs belong to,”
National Police intelligence chief Fabian
Solano said.
Solano said he was concerned that Ecuador
might now be a drug producer and not just a
transit country. EFE
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