A large-scale operation was carried out in six provinces of Ecuador and in “strategic points in Colombia”, allowing to “dismantle a gang dedicated to the production and trafficking of weapons and explosives”, explained Mr Lasso on Twitter, speaking of more than twenty arrests and in both countries.
The authorities of Ecuador, in coordination with those of neighboring Colombia, have dismantled a network involved in the trafficking of weapons and explosives in the country, President Guillermo Lasso announced yesterday.
A large-scale operation was carried out in six provinces of Ecuador and in “strategic points in Colombia”, allowing to “dismantle a gang dedicated to the production and trafficking of weapons and explosives”, explained Mr Lasso on Twitter, speaking of more than twenty arrests and in both countries.
In recent years, Ecuador has become a hub for the trafficking of cocaine, produced in particular in Colombia, destined for the US and European markets. The two countries share a border of 586 kilometers.
The rapid increase in drug trafficking has translated in Ecuador into an explosion of violence (25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002, compared to 14 in 2021), especially in the large port of Guayaquil, on the Pacific coast.
For its part, Colombian police announced on Monday that they had seized 33 assault rifles and a machine gun belonging to a dissident group of the former rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which rejects the 2016 peace deal.
“Two operations were done in coordination with the Colombian government, Here’s what we accomplish when we work together. A great project for the security of the country”, said Mr. Lasso with satisfaction.
The president of Ecuador, without specifying whether the cases were connected, clarified that the dismantled network’s arsenal included “assault rifles, hunting rifles, pistols and more.”
“This weaponry was used to fuel violence in the streets, to support terrorism and to involve Ecuador in international arms smuggling,” he added.
Between Colombia and Peru, the two countries that produce the largest quantities of cocaine in the world, Ecuador spoke of seizing almost 200 tons of drugs in 2022, mainly cocaine, an amount not much less than the absolute record of 2021 (210 tons). Seizures had reached 192 tons of drugs in 2020.
RES-EMP
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