Ecuador has become a convergence point for two global businesses: the export of bananas and cocaine, generating an unprecedented wave of violence in the country and causing the number of seizures to skyrocket in Europe.
Although the South American country is not one of the largest cocaine producers, it is surrounded by two states that are – Peru and Colombia – and, as the world’s largest exporter of bananas, it has something that traffickers consider the perfect vehicle to smuggle the drug. . product: containers full of bananas.
In addition to its proximity to some of the world’s largest drug cartels, Ecuador has been the country of choice for these criminals due to its use of the US dollar, increasingly weakening laws and institutions, as well as a vast network of gangs. The Associated Press explained this Monday.
Traffickers have taken advantage of this window of opportunity and seek, above all, the boxes where the bananas are kept to hide the drug they intend to traffic, which causes the number of seizures to skyrocket, especially in Europe.
After being boxed in the plantations, the fruit is loaded onto trucks to huge warehouses located in and around Guayaquil and transferred to maritime containers bound for a port in the area. The ships then head northeast to the Panama Canal, cross the Caribbean Sea, and head east across the Atlantic.
Taking advantage of this route, some criminals create false banana export companies, while others prefer to find legitimate companies willing to be accomplices in drug trafficking. In addition, some truckers and plantation workers are threatened, paid, or kidnapped to help put the narcotics in these shipments.
Other traffickers corrupt or intimidate police, customs agents, security guards and port workers to help – or ignore – the handling of containers in ports.
Currently, less than 30% of the containers are inspected in Ecuadorian ports, a process that is done manually, often using sniffer dogs. The government of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso says it wants to use scanners on all containers. Twelve of these machines should already be in operation, but to date they are not available.
Still, this is work that has been fruitful: in 2021, almost a third of the cocaine seized by customs authorities in Western and Central Europe came from Ecuador, double the amount recorded in 2018. Since then, the big drug seizures have become more frequent. European authorities made record seizures in August after inspecting containers carrying bananas from the South American country.
Data from the Ecuadorian police reveal that a record 47.5 metric tons of cocaine was found in shipments of bananas in 2022, despite the fact that exports of the fruit decreased by 6.4% compared to 2021.
For the local population this has immediate consequences, which have translated into an unprecedented wave of violence in the once peaceful nation. Shootings, murders, kidnappings and extortions have become part of daily life, especially in the Pacific port city of Guayaquil, center of the banana trade.
The assassination of the presidential candidate known for his strong stance against organized crime and corruption, Fernado Villavicencio, shot dead at the end of a campaign rally on August 9, has shaken the country. Days earlier, Villavicencio accused the Ecuadorian gang Los Choneros and its jailed leader of threatening him and his team.
Drug trafficking has also contributed to the increase in the number of violent deaths in Ecuador, which doubled from 2021 to 2022, when 4,600 people died, the highest number ever recorded in one year. Still, the country is on track to break the annual record again, with 3,568 violent deaths recorded in the first half of 2023.
Source: TSF
