2023-09-04 21:28:33
QUITO (AP) — The Ecuadorian government announced Monday greater controls on banana exports, with Ecuador being the world’s leading exporter, as drug traffickers use that production chain and its routes to Europe and other destinations to distribute cocaine.
A statement from the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Customs Service indicated that preferential export codes —permits necessary to operate as exporters— were deactivated for 16,000 hectares of bananas, which turned out to be fictitious. Last year the codes for 20,000 hectares were annulled, also false.
In addition, profiles of false exporters and export preferences were annulled, without having legalized or supporting contracts.
He explained that these measures seek to prevent drug traffickers, through front companies or legal companies, from exporting drugs. Also that they use companies willing to be accomplices in the transfer of cocaine.
Ecuador is the world’s leading exporter of bananas, with sales of 6.5 million tons a year that are shipped by sea, but lax controls and the country’s geographical location, between Colombia and Peru, the main cocaine producers in the world, have been an attraction for organized crime that uses bananas as a vehicle to export cocaine, according to AP.
Police data shows that of the total for last year, a record 47.5 tons of cocaine were found in banana shipments, despite the fact that exports of that fruit fell by 6.4% compared to 2021. Between January and August of this year, Ecuador exported 212.63 million boxes of bananas.
In the country, no more than 30% of containers are checked in ports, a process that is carried out manually or with dogs trained to detect narcotics.
The authorities have recognized that local gangs, subsidiaries of cartels from Mexico, Colombia and even Albania, dedicated to the distribution of narcotics, operate in national territory. Since the government of Guillermo Lasso began, in May 2021, and until August of this year, the police have seized 502 tons of drugs.
1693862984
#Ecuador #announces #greater #control #export #bananas #shipments #contaminated #cocaine
