Ecuador - Drugs - 2022
In June 2022, President Guillermo Lasso announced that he would propose a “Plan Ecuador” to advance the countries' cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking. In April 2007, Plan Colombia was matched by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's announcement of Plan Ecuador for 2007—2018. The Correa administration had also pursued a policy known as Plan Ecuador to develop the northern border region and protect citizens from the drug threat.
On 10 February 2022 the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Wilder Emilio Sanchez Farfan and Miguel Angel Valdez Ruiz pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14059 for materially contributing to the illicit activities of major Mexican cartels to traffic cocaine into the United States. Sanchez Farfan was arrested in Colombia in February 2023.
Wilder Emilio Sanchez Farfan was designated for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production. Sanchez Farfan, an Ecuadorian national, is one of the most significant drug traffickers in the world today. Working from Guayaquil, Ecuador, Sanchez Farfan transports multi-ton quantities of cocaine over land from manufacturing labs in the south of Colombia to Ecuador where shipments are transported by land, air and maritime vessels (including commercial shipping containers), and land-based vehicles through Central America, Mexico, and ultimately the United States.
Sanchez Farfan is a major cocaine source of supplier to the Sinaloa Cartel. He uses associates in Mexico to facilitate multi-ton cocaine shipments to Sinaloa Cartel members in Culiacan, Manzanillo, and Ensenada in Mexico. The Sinaloa Cartel, which is based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, is one of the oldest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and was designated on December 15, 2021 pursuant to E.O. 14059.
Additionally, Sanchez Farfan has sent representatives of his organization to Mexico to meet with members of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) to establish a working relationship to import multi-ton quantities of cocaine into Mexico from Ecuador. CJNG, known for its brazen violence, is among the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world and was designated on December 15, 2021 pursuant to E.O. 14059.
The Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG are responsible for trafficking a significant proportion of the fentanyl, cocaine, and other deadly drugs into the United States. Increasingly, cocaine sold in the United States is laced with fentanyl, which increases the possibility of death for its users.
Miguel Angel Valdez Ruiz was designated for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production. Valdez Ruiz, a Mexican national, is a drug trafficker in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico who imports cocaine from Ecuador and is supplied by and works directly with Sanchez Farfan. Valdez Ruiz serves as an intermediary between Sanchez Farfan and Ismael Zambada Garcia, a Sinaloa Cartel leader. Zambada Garcia, who was designated on December 15, 2021, pursuant to E.O. 14059, is the subject of a State Department Narcotics Rewards Program offer. Valdez Ruiz has direct contact with Zambada Garcia and is responsible for helping him receive Sanchez Farfan’s cocaine from Ecuador. Valdez Ruiz uses his fleet of private aircraft to transport cocaine from Ecuador to Sinaloa, Mexico. He coordinates with associates in Mexicali, Ensenada, and Tijuana, Mexico to transport cocaine from Sinaloa to the southern border of California and into the United States.
In 2019, a federal drug trafficking indictment was returned in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against both Sanchez Farfan and Valdez Ruiz, who were fugitives from the charges.
Leandro Norero, alias "El Patrón", who was arrested in May 2022 on money laundering charges, reportedly had significant business and real estate investments and was seen as a key link between Ecuadorian criminal groups, Mexican drug cartels and Ecuador's business and political elite. Norero was among the 16 inmates killed 03 October 2022 during the massacre inside a maximum security prison in the city of Latacunga, during which inmates wielded knives and guns. Norero's death came at the hands of Los Lobos, who were supposed to be his allies. In fact, according to police reports, Norero allegedly financed the Tiguerones, Chone Killers and Los Lobos, who were feuding with Fito Jr, of Los Choneros. Two days later, 13 inmates were killed and 20 wounded in a separate incident at a prison in Guayaquil.
Since the arrest of Norero, his two brothers and his wife, there had been a break with the Tiguerones, especially with their leaders, the "Alcívar brothers" and aliases Negro Willly. The enemy gangs accused them of having handed over the Noreros to justice and working for the DEA. In the midst of reckoning there are thousands of prisoners who are serving sentences in the country's jails and who fear being victims of this catastrophe of blood and bullets.
With the murder of Leandro Norero Tigua, 36, a series of questions arise about criminal violence and drug trafficking operations in the country. Who is the heir of Leandro Norero? Will the bloodshed continue? After the death of José Luis Zambrano, alias Rasquiña or JL , the top leader of Los Choneros, Samir and Norero took charge of cocaine shipments abroad and all of its logistics. The investigators point out that both manage the network of contacts that Zambrano wove. They are connections with port guards, corrupt police officers, workers of fruit exporting companies, judicial officials, and politicians who collaborate with drug trafficking operations.
By 2022 police attributed a large part of the country’s homicide rate to increased drug trafficking and conflicts among drug gangs fighting over trafficking routes. On August 14, media outlets and law enforcement authorities reported a bomb attack in the Cristo del Consuelo neighborhood in Guayaquil killed five persons, injured 17 others, and destroyed seven houses. On November 1-6, gangs orchestrated simultaneous attacks on police and public places in five cities in response to government plans to transfer prisoners to break up gang monopolies in Litoral Prison, the country’s largest. The violence resulted in at least nine fatalities, including of five police officers, and at least 29 explosions, 17 shooting events, and eight unexploded ordnances in public places. The government attributed the attacks to drug gangs and stated criminal groups had “declared war on the State.” Following the August and November attacks, President Lasso declared “states of exception” establishing a police-military task force to combat gang-related crime in targeted cities and provinces and also allowing security forces to use proportional force depending on the threat.
Prison officials and human rights organizations agreed most violent deaths in prisons were linked to rivalries among criminal gangs with links to drug cartels. Fighting between drug-trafficking gangs in prisons led to 96 violent deaths through July 31. As of July, the prison death rate was notably lower than in 2021 (337 total deaths), although more than twice the rate in 2020 (51 total deaths). On 09 May 2022, a clash between drug gangs in a Santo Domingo prison left at least 44 dead. Authorities attributed the violence to overcrowding and the recent transfer into the prison of inmates from a rival gang. NGOs reported that criminal organizations operating within and without prisons intimidated prison staff while on and off duty, and inmates enlisted visitors and prison staff to smuggle contraband, including weapons, into prisons.
Local media reported organized criminal groups attacked a judge and four public prosecutors during the year 2022. On May 5, prosecutor Victor Hugo Alcivar was seriously injured in an apparent attempt on his life in Santo Domingo. On May 25, prosecutor Luz Marina Delgado and her assistant were shot and killed in Manta. Delgado led a money-laundering investigation into the spouse of a drug trafficker. On July 28, Guayas prosecutor César Peña’s car was hit by gunfire but he was uninjured. On August 15, prosecutor Federico Estrella was shot and killed in Los Rios. Estrella worked for the only office in Babahoyo that investigates violent deaths and drug-related cases. On August 25, judge Nelson Patricio Yánez was killed in Lago Agrio. The Attorney General’s Office was investigating these crimes.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
