Guayaquil (Ecuador).- The Ecuadorian Navy and the United States Coast Guard seized 1.9 tons of drugs at sea, presumably destined for North America, and arrested two people, according to the Ecuadorian military institution this Tuesday.
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During the operation, two Ecuadorian citizens identified as Víctor V. and Jonathan V. were arrested. The Ministry of Defense added in a statement that this operation is framed “within the cooperation agreements that Ecuador maintains with allied countries to combat transnational crimes in aquatic spaces.” Ecuador and the United States have carried out several seizures at sea in the last year. The most recent was on February 23rd, when they seized 3.12 tons of cocaine that were in a vessel located near the international political border of Ecuador with Peru, in the south of the country. These two countries also initiated joint military operations last week on Ecuadorian soil against “terrorist” organizations, in which they bombed and destroyed a training camp of the Border Commands, one of the criminal dissident groups of the extinct guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Surrounded by Colombia and Peru, the two largest global producers of cocaine, with several ports on its coasts and a dollarized economy, Ecuador has become in recent years an important passage for the trafficking of that drug that is mostly directed to Europe and North America. In 2025, security forces seized 227.1 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine, 67 tons less than were reported in 2024, when a record figure of 294.61 was recorded, according to official data.
