Ecuador, faced with an unprecedented wave of violence linked to drug trafficking, seized more than 64 tonnes of drugs between January and April, police announced on Tuesday (May 2).
“In April, 995 people were arrested for drug cases, and 18.5 tons”
of drugs were seized, police general Pablo Ramirez, national anti-drug director, told the press.
A total of 64.6 tons of drugs have been seized so far this year (compared to 200 tons in 2022, and 210 tons in 2021), and 4,099 people arrested for drug trafficking, said this official.
The authorities include all types of drugs (marijuana, cocaine and others) in the seizures made, the majority being cocaine.
The most recent seizure, 1.9 tons of cocaine, was concealed in a shipment of bananas that was going to leave the port of Guayaquil (southwest) bound for Sweden.
420 dead in prisons
On the Pacific coast, Guayaquil is one of the cities hardest hit by drug trafficking and violence.
At least 18 people were killed there this weekend, local media reported.
On Saturday in particular, unidentified assailants opened fire on people watching a football match on TV, killing ten people.
On April 11, in the province of Esmeraldas, in the north-west of the country, around thirty armed men opened fire on residents, killing nine people.
According to the authorities, the victims were under the protection of a criminal group and were allegedly attacked by a rival group.
In the country's prisons, clashes between inmates have claimed more than 420 lives since 2021, while outside prisons the homicide rate has almost doubled between 2021 and 2022, from 14 to 25 per 100,000 inhabitants. , according to the authorities.
This explosion of violence led the government to impose a state of emergency in the most affected provinces and cities, in the coastal areas of Santa Elena, Los Rios and Esmeraldas, as well as in the cities of Guayaquil, Duran and Samborondon.
President Guillermo Lasso has declared
criminal groups
"terrorists" , allowing the armed forces to patrol the streets alongside the police.
