Buenos Aires, Sept 20. (dpa/GNA) – Police in Ecuador seized more than 1.5 tons of cocaine in a night-time operation involving explosives, Interior Minister John Reimberg said on Saturday on X.
The explosives were used to reach the underground hiding place near the coastal city of Manta, he said. The secret location was completely destroyed.
Reimberg said police found a total of 1,353 packets of cocaine hidden in 55 jute bags. There were differing figures on the value of the illegal goods.
While Reimberg put it at the equivalent of more than $64 million, police said in a statement it was $45 million. The authority spoke of a “severe blow to the finances and criminal structures of the drug trade”.
The operation took place during one of the nighttime curfews that have been in force in several provinces of Ecuador for a few days.
The government of President Daniel Noboa, wants to intensify the fight against organized criminal groups.
In the first two days of the curfews, 150 people were arrested, Reimberg told the TV channel Teleamazonas.Transit hub in the drug tradeEcuador has become an important transit country for cocaine from neighbouring countries such as Colombia and Peru.
Just under two weeks ago, police seized more than 2 tons of cocaine in the port of Machala that was hidden in banana crates for export to Sweden.
In April this year, investigators at the Port of Hamburg discovered cocaine smuggled from Ecuador in a container, loaded with bananas with a value of around €30 million ($34 million) packed into 1,600 parcels.
GNA