Two large drug processing laboratories located in Ecuador and Colombia

Two large laboratories with the capacity to process at least 10 tons of drugs per week were dismantled on the border between Ecuador and Colombia after three months of joint investigations and in collaboration with the DEA, authorities reported on Sunday.

The first infrastructure, which could produce 15 tons of drugs and in which between 60 and 80 people would have worked, was located the day before on the banks of the Mira River, in the province of Esmeraldas, in the north of Ecuador, reported in a press conference. the commander of the Esmeraldas Joint Task Force, Milton Rodríguez, presses.

In front of it, on the Colombian side, the Army of that country found another laboratory with the capacity to process 10 tons of drugs, Rodríguez added, about which he did not provide more details.

According to the military chief, the new laboratory on the Ecuadorian side was located about four kilometers away from another similar one that was located weeks ago and which until that time was the largest that had been found in the Andean country.

The rugged geography of the sector means that the border area is used by criminal groups that seek to “outwit” permanent military patrols, said Rodríguez, despite which he insisted that Ecuador is not considered a processing site.

This infrastructure would belong to the Oliver Sinisterra Front, which, according to the commander, operates as part of the Second Marquetalia, one of the largest dissident groups of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) present in that area, he noted.

The commander of the Esmeraldas Police, General Jorge Cevallos, indicated that these laboratories, commonly known as “kitchens,” are “the most important preamble within the distribution chain” of drugs.

The police presume that the narcotics were transported in small boats to coves in Ecuador and Colombia and then transported to the international market.

In addition, nine microwave ovens, an industrial kitchen and two refinery-type tanks, among other elements for processing, and about eight bags of drugs were seized.

The authorities estimated that the operation represents a “blow” of about 1.5 billion dollars annually to the illegal drug trafficking economy.

Ecuador is considered a logistics center where drugs are collected, stored and distributed to international markets in Central America, the United States and Europe.

According to information from the Ecuadorian police, between 2021 and 2023, six laboratories were detected in the border area. The authorities deny that Ecuador has taken a step towards prosecution in this illegal sector, but experts believe that the latest findings, increasingly frequent and extensive, provide indications that Colombian drug traffickers seek to extend their laboratories to Ecuador.

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