Ecuador: Intercepts a Speedboat Carrying About 315 Kilos of Cocaine
Ecuadorian Police with the Cocaine Seized, Sept 2024 Photo: Policia Ecuador
September 26, 2024 Hour: 8:45 pm
The Ecuadorian Navy intercepted a speedboat carrying about 315 kilos of cocaine at 18 nautical miles (33 kilometers) from the country’s continental coast in an operation coordinated by US authorities.
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The boat, manned by two men who were detained and equipped with three powerful outboard engines, carried 270 packages of cocaine whose combined weight reached 314.9 kilos.
The two detainees and the drugs were taken to the port of Manta, capital of the coastal province of Manabí, which is located in the center of the country.
In Ecuador, the seized drug would have a value of about 630,000 dollars, while in the United States it would reach about 6.3 million dollars and in Europe it would reach more than 12.5 million dollars.
Among the items from the boat that were seized are a sonoboya without serial number, a cell phone and several documents.
Surrounded by Colombia and Peru, the two largest producers of cocaine in the world, with several ports on its coasts, such as Guayaquil, and a dollar-rich economy, Ecuador has become in recent years an important step for the trafficking of this drug, which is mainly directed to Europe and North America.
Ecuador is ranked as the third country in the world to seize drugs, behind only Colombia and the United States, with about 200 tons of narcotics seized annually in each of the last three years.
However, so far this year, Ecuador has already exceeded that amount of drug seizures and accumulated 211 tons seized.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: EFE