Ecuador - Drugs - 2021
By 2020 Colombian transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) used Ecuador and Venezuela as transshipment points for cocaine shipments bound for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Due to successful counterdrug efforts by the Colombian Government, Colombian TCOs have shifted a sizable portion of their drug trafficking activities to neighboring countries. Colombian TCOs transport and store large quantities of cocaine in remote areas of Venezuela and Ecuador until maritime or aerial transportation can be secured.
Ecuador’s government is committed to efforts to address drug trafficking, and authorities seized a record quantity of narcotics in 2021. During the first 10 months of 2021, Ecuador eradicated 30,360 coca plants (approximately 3 hectares), mostly in the northern border province of Sucumbíos. Synthetic drug production and consumption is a growing concern for Ecuadorian authorities. While the government has increasingly turned to the United States as its security partner of choice, the police, military, and justice sector lack sufficient resources to effectively confront transnational crime.
On 27 January 2021, gunmen shot and killed popular television presenter Efrain Ruales Rios, allegedly for a string of social media posts critical of drug gangs reportedly linked to influential political families, especially that of former president Bucaram. Victor Gonzalez, the lead prosecutor investigating the Ruales killing, stated he started receiving death threats on July 6 after giving an interview in which he speculated on those allegedly responsible for Ruales’s death. Gonzalez added he had since received police protection. On November 26, a trial started against six persons accused in a conspiracy to murder Ruales.
Also on 27 January 2021, former president Bucaram, in an interview regarding the Ruales killing and in response to accusations about his family, issued death threats to several individuals, including national television journalist Dayanna Monroy, whose reporting he had criticized since October 2020. On February 3, then presidential spokesperson Caridad Vela stated the government rejected intimidation attempts against Monroy and other journalists and would offer police protection to Monroy.
Prison officials and human rights organizations agreed most violent deaths in prisons in 2021 were linked to tension among criminal gangs with links to drug cartels. Fighting between drug-trafficking gangs in prisons led to 331 violent deaths through October 27, the highest-ever recorded annual total, with gangs employing increasingly brutal and sophisticated tactics. As of October prison deaths were more than six times the 2020 total (52) and more than 10 times the 2019 total (32). On February 23, coordinated attacks across four prisons between armed prison gangs resulted in a total of 79 inmates dead. The July 22 prison riots in the Latacunga Rehabilitation Center in Cotopaxi Province and the Litoral Prison in Guayaquil left 22 inmates dead. On September 28, a record 118 inmates died after continued fighting in Litoral Prison, and an additional 65 inmates died in November 12 clashes in the same facility. Other prison disturbances throughout the year included four inmates killed by hanging, also at Litoral Prison, on October 13 and seven on October 23.
During the July 22 riot, prison gangs injured eight police officers and sexually assaulted one female police officer as police attempted to retake control. Further, in the July 22 riots, inmates reportedly fired on prison staff and police reinforcements with high-caliber rifles, complicating government efforts to re-establish control. Government and media sources pointed out that gangs employed more gruesome tactics than in the past, including beheadings, dismemberment, live incineration, and torture. These events were captured on video and shared widely on commercial messaging services, presumably to intimidate rival gangs and the government.
NGOs reported that criminal organizations operating within and outside of prisons intimidated prison staff while on and off duty and inmates enlisted visitors and prison staff to help smuggle contraband into prisons. On July 13, the Attorney General’s Office placed in pretrial detention a suspect arrested while attempting to smuggle two rifles, four handguns, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and four explosive grenades into Litoral Prison. On June 30, a Venezuelan national was arrested outside Litoral Prison and placed into pretrial detention for attempting to smuggle more than six pounds of cocaine and marijuana, a shotgun, three handguns, ammunition of various calibers, and other prohibited items.
In August 2020 Israeli citizen Shy Dahan (incarcerated for alleged ties to corruption in acquiring medical equipment and fraudulent COVID-19 testing kits in a scheme allegedly involving former president Abdala Bucaram) was found dead in his cell in Litoral Prison. On March 9, media reported former Litoral Prison director Hector Vivar was sentenced to 20 months in prison for extortion and ordered to pay a fine. Vivar was convicted for his involvement in a bribery scheme in which he demanded $30,000 in exchange for Dahan’s protection and safety. According to media Vivar had two other cases against him, one for illicit association, the other for delinquency, linked to his time as prison director.
President Lasso declared a state of emergency following the July 22 prison riots and replaced the prison system director to help re-establish control. Minister of Government Alexandra Vela proposed to decrease prison violence by reducing overcrowding through the release of approximately 5,200 nonviolent offenders, foreigners, and elderly inmates. Law enforcement experts noted that such a plan was unlikely to reduce violence in the short term because power disputes between gangs dominating the prisons remained unresolved. On August 18, new prison system director Fausto Cobo announced an additional $75 million in funding over four years to improve prison infrastructure, upgrade surveillance technology, and hire and train additional prison staff. After the first state of emergency expired September 20, President Lasso declared a second state of emergency on September 29 in response to the September 28 prison killings and announced an additional $24 million to improve security and conditions specifically in Guayaquil area prisons. Lasso renewed the state of emergency in the prison system for 30 days on November 29.
On 15 November 2021, the president announced a comprehensive, seven-point “national agreement” to curb prison violence and confront drug-trafficking gangs. The plan included elements such as continued police and military efforts to provide order and security inside and outside prisons, legislative changes to reform use of force protocols, accelerated judicial processes to reduce overcrowding, and civil society support for conflict resolution between prison gangs.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Health has the oversight of drug prevention and treatment programs. The Ministry of Government is responsible for efforts against the production, trafficking, sale, and use of illicit drugs, for regulating the use of controlled substances, and for destroying seized substances. In the first 10 months of 2021, the government reported destroying 56.48 metric tons (MT) of seized narcotics.
During 2021 the United States conducted maritime patrol flights in coordination with Ecuador to monitor and interdict maritime drug trafficking. U.S. and Ecuadorian maritime authorities also conducted operations involving the boarding of vessels claiming Ecuadorian nationality and stateless vessels in international waters. The United States continues to support several units within the police.
In September 2021, Ecuador broke its record on annual drug seizures, and seizures reached 139 MT as of mid-October. Cocaine seizures totaled 117.54 MT during the first 10 months of 2021, a 60 percent increase from 2020 and the highest ever total in Ecuador. The volume of heroin seized during the first ten months in 2021 totaled 263.98 kilograms (kg), a decrease of 415.9 kg from the same period in 2020. Seizures of marijuana totaled 21.8 MT during the first 10 months of 2021, down from 24.05 MT during the same period in 2020. The police seized 22,130.82 liters of liquid controlled precursor chemicals and 31.77 MT of solid controlled precursor chemicals during the first ten months of 2021, compared with 17,934.58 liters of liquid controlled precursor chemicals and 57.55 MT of solid controlled precursor chemicals in the first ten months of 2020. On August 13, the U.S.-supported Ecuadorian National Police seized 9.4 MT of cocaine in Guayaquil, one of the country’s largest ever seizures. As of October 14, the police had arrested 10,478 individuals for trafficking-related crimes, compared to 9,720 during the same period in 2020, a 7.8 percent increase.
Maritime seizures of all illicit drugs totaled 5.14 MT during the first 10 months of 2021, nearly double the 2.67 MT seized at sea during the same period in 2020. The police detected five drug trafficking aircraft and located four clandestine airstrips in Galapagos, Guayas, Esmeraldas, and Santa Elena provinces.
Guayaquil is a major transshipment hub for cocaine concealed in cargo shipped to Europe and around the world. Authorities inspected 22 percent of containerized exports from Guayaquil ports. During the first 10 months of 2021, the police conducted 53,759 container inspections in the four Guayaquil ports and the Posorja Port that ship containerized cargo, an increase from the 52,083 containers inspected in these five ports in all of 2020. U.S. officials continued to work with Ecuadorian authorities to secure maritime cargo under the Container Security Initiative established in 2018. In October 2021, President Lasso issued a decree requiring Ecuador’s ports to scan all outgoing containers.
Since his inauguration in May 2021, President Guillermo Lasso committed to reducing both drug supply and demand and to combating transnational criminal organizations. Domestic drug consumption is rising, and treatment facilities are insufficient to fully address increasing substance abuse. Colombian and Mexican cartels run drug trafficking and other illicit activities in Ecuador, while drug-related gang wars contributed to record levels of prison violence in 2021.
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