One of the strongest recent blows to drug trafficking was dealt in boxes of bananas that were being prepared for shipment by sea from Guayaquil to Europe. Seven tons of cocaine were found in the cartons, a figure described as the largest seizure in seaports in the country this year.
Last Sunday, February 13, agents from the National Unit for the Investigation of Ports and Airports, the Canine Unit and the Support of the Special Mobile Anti-Drug Group (Gema), with the support of dog Jessi, received the alert of the possible presence of the alkaloid and After due inspection, they found 7,028 blocks of the whitish substance corresponding to cocaine, whose value in the local market can be quoted at $14.6 million and in the European continent at up to $12,435 million.
And between Wednesday and Thursday, 1.5 tons of cocaine and 3 more tons in bottles of guayusa were discovered in a shipment of teak.
Holguer Cortez, deputy commander of Zone 8 of the Police, mentioned this week that the anti-narcotics warehouses were saturated with illicit substances and asked for agility from the judicial system and competent entities to continue the administrative processes of destruction of the material.
After the seizure of the drug, a judge must determine the destruction of the drug in fifteen days, added the police chief, taking into account Ecuadorian legislation.
“We have to allocate a large number of officials to secure a large quantity of drugs,” he said, adding that “so far this year there has not been a single destruction.” This process is carried out in Quito.
For police authorities, drug trafficking is linked to the majority of violent deaths in Zone 8, which includes the Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón cantons.
In El Oro the thesis is being considered that drug traffickers are sending ‘signals’, after finding a head near the port
Víctor Zárate, commander of Zone 8 of the National Police, mentioned that so far this year in Zone 8 there have been 162 violent deaths, of which 92% (147) correspond to criminal violence linked to micro and drug trafficking. .
“In a balance of the historical records, in 2020 there was a seizure of 4 tons, 28 violent deaths were recorded, in 2021 with the seizure of 6 tons, 54 violent deaths; and so far in 2022, we have 9 tons and the record of 162 violent deaths. What makes us think, within the analysis that we have carried out, that everything is due to a struggle for supply in local and international markets, issues directly linked to drug trafficking,” he said in an interview on Wednesday the 16th.
In 2020 alone, there was the seizure of 210 tons, a record number of seizures, and this year there are already 30 tons at the country level.
Faced with this problem that has been intensifying in the streets and prisons, on Wednesday the 16th, President Guillermo Lasso, in a radio link, assured that drug and micro-drug trafficking is “a present reality” in Ecuador and particularly in the city of Guayaquil, and that produces fights and struggles in different spaces, as in the case of two bodies hanging on a pedestrian bridge in Durán.
In addition, the president indicated that they are working on the control of ports and prisons in Guayaquil and spoke of international cooperation to confront drug gangs with the support of the United States, Colombia, Israel and the United Kingdom, in the areas of intelligence, experience, technology and resources.
“We have to face them. We cannot give up space, the State cannot give up space for these gangs. We have to do it,” the president said.
In addition to drug seizures, John Garaycoa, an expert in Criminology and Forensic Psychophysiology, considered several actions that the Ecuadorian State must undertake in various fields.
Among these measures, he considered that operations and large interventions in streets, state highways and areas of the city should be intensified, especially in the so-called hot zones such as Playita del Guasmo (Guayaquil) and Cerro Las Cabras (Durán), to disarm criminals, and in parallel to promote the collaboration of private guards in the security of businesses and adjacent spaces, in coordination with the Police.
“Once you take away the cannon from the offender, he obviously is not going to act, but unfortunately if not even the prisons, which are an established, marked and identified redoubt, do not do so, what can we expect from a raid on a criminal? industry as such? therein lies the serious problem”, he commented.
John Garaycoa, expert in Criminology
“They have to carry out a major operation, first the intelligence work, then mount the surveillance and the surprise operation, which is often not surprising because unfortunately thousands of people are involved and the information can leak,” he said.
Garaycoa also emphasized as essential the distribution of prisoners depending on their dangerousness in prisons, legal reforms so that police action is endorsed and that criminal acts captured on videos have sufficient support in judicialized cases, also that the authorities collect information from the operability of the security cameras to maintain surveillance and, in turn, maintain and implement technological improvements to said equipment.
“If video and voice biodata is not analyzed to develop prevention and reaction strategies, security technology is useless. Technology doesn’t work if there isn’t an entity that really analyzes each one of the things, divorced from a political issue, clearly focused on the result. It does not work if the people are not transformed into a culture of meritocracy and that in their actions they can also denounce the issue of corruption, how many times have we heard security belongs to everyone, but even in the issue of security, the people must also be that they have confidence in the biochamber system,” he said.
In the long term, he added, self-sustainability mechanisms for security should be sought, such as, for example, with the creation of a fee, framed in a comprehensive security permit, as applied to the Fire Department.
“Where once the technical recommendations of my facilities have been fulfilled, be it small, medium or large, a cyber or shopping center, and pass a comprehensive compliance format, where within that format I have the obligation to help take care of the space adjacent to my home or business. At that time, I am contributing with the security system, ”he commented, adding that those funds collected should be used for continuous improvements in security agencies. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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