The date of installation of the scanners in the country’s ports is the best kept secret. Confidential. It is held in reserve for ‘security’. The only thing that is certain is that not a single container will go unchecked. Everyone, without exception, will be scanned by these teams that will detect all kinds of drugs hidden inside.
Thus, the narco-criminal groups that contaminate the export cargo with illegal substances will be “hit” with the confiscations of their production. Not even entrusting themselves to ‘holy death’, a skull covered in a tunic venerated by the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, present in the country, will they evade this control that the country’s eight ports will gradually use from next year, with an investment which reaches $55 million.
“With these machines, you can check the walls, floors and detect if there is any type of contamination,” explains Felipe Ochoa, deputy director of operations of the National Customs Service of Ecuador (Senae), the entity responsible for compliance with executive decree 227. , which required the use of scanners in port terminals and set a deadline of last month.
The times were not met because each scanner is made to measure and imported from abroad, which added to its installation in the country can take more than a year.
“They asked me to leave $50,000 in my house in exchange for contaminating a container,” says a former port worker
In Ecuador, two of the eight ports that move containers have scanners: DP World Posorja, since its creation (in 2019) and the port of Manta since this year.
The scanners are one part of a set of measures that have to be taken to make a safe harbor
Iván Woldarsky, security manager of DP World Posorja
Meanwhile, Milton Lalama, director of the Ecuadorian Maritime Chamber (Camae), believes that these teams are a “great measure” to minimize the contamination of the containers that is carried out, he adds, throughout the logistics chain, from the centers of production and deposits, until reaching the port operators.
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With the scanners working in all the terminals, an increase in seizures in the country is expected, which this year, Until November 30, they exceeded 177.6 tons of drugs, valued at more than $8.5 billion.
Without these tools, the Police reached a record number of seizures of illegal substances in ports in 2022. Until November 21, they totaled 68.6 tons
Most of the detections this year, 87% (60 t), are concentrated in three operators: in the public Contecon, the second port that mobilizes the most cargo in Guayaquil -6.2 million tons in 2021-, 36 t of drugs were seized; in DP World Posorja, the third party that handles this activity -3 million tons-, 19 t were found; and in the private TPG or Inarpi, which leads the business -8.4 million tons-, 5 t were found.
The managers of this last port did not accept an interview with this newspaper, but the Association of Private Port Terminals of Ecuador (Asotep) responded for them by indicating that “due to security and prevention policy, they cannot expose in detail the measures adopted ” .
One of the latest seizures was made on November 13, at a terminal. In banana boxes, from a container that was destined for the Netherlands (Holland), they removed 1,356 packages with cocaine hydrochloride (1.3 t), valued at $100 million in Europe.
“The controls work”, considers the manager of Contecon, Javier Lancha, who points out that, despite the fact that most exports are to “sensitive” destinations, this year the seizures at his terminal decreased (6%) and a higher figure -which he did not detail- abroad. “We are clear about where we have to reinforce, and that is what we are doing.”
At Contecon, physical adaptations are already being made to incorporate the scanners which, he assures, they suggested to the Port Authority since 2014. But they could not acquire them, because -he adds- they required standards that were developed this year.
Port controls are similar in all the terminals and start from the moment the exporting companies obtain an appointment for their cargo to be received at the ports. Several weeks in advance, they send the data of the driver, the truck, the driver and the load, which arrives with a numbered seal from the farm or industry, information that is verified during the first security filters.
In the case of the DP World Posorja port, the first filter is on the Playas-Posorja road, 21 km from this port terminal. The driver stops his march so that the concessionaire’s personnel can check the scheduled appointment on a portable device and that the container is sealed; then he proceeds to the entrance to the port, where the information on the shipment is verified, before leading him to the scanner.
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While following the vehicle, at a speed of about 20 km/hour, the machine takes screenshots, like an X-ray, and digitally sends them to the Police. These images are observed, in real time, and analyzed by a group of technicians through twenty screens, in the Senae monitoring center, inaugurated last month in a confidential sector. From there, agents can access cameras throughout the terminal.
“We can have the best technology in the world, but if there is a contaminated person reviewing the images it is useless,” admits Ochoa, deputy director of the Senae, who assures that the center’s staff underwent “integrity” and polygraph tests. In addition, he considers that it will be difficult to ‘bribe’ the operators, because they do not know the container they are viewing, its numbering and the port where it is.
The Police, based on the images, determine if the container requires a deeper inspection, explains Iván Woldarsky, security manager of DP World Posorja.
The containers are transferred to a yard for inspection, with canisters and in the presence of a cargo representative. “If any type of contamination is found, the area is isolated and the prosecutor is called to start the (investigative) process,” adds the manager.
At Contecon and DP World Posorja they have a circuit of cameras that capture all operations and alert, for example, if there is a worker walking through the yards -which is prohibited- or if he is in an area where he has no access. The time it takes for a container to move from the entrance to the patio, to unload and move them to other points is also controlled.
And before shipping the containers to the ships, the Police make another inspection of the seals, which have not been violated, and of another group of containers. If all is well, they are craned onto the boat, also inspected by the coast guard unit and divers, while it anchors at the dock. (YO)
