Ecuadorian anti-narcotics officers have seized 656.7 kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated value of $42 million, concealed in a cargo container transporting bananas bound for Tunisia.

The drugs were distributed among ten jute bags in the shape of 660 brick-type packets, according to the police.

The discovery was made as part of an anti-drug trafficking operation dubbed "Vispera," according to the chief of the Latin American country's police, Fausto Buenano Castillo.

The investigation will be led by the National Guard's criminal affairs division in Ben Arous City, according to Houssem Eddine Jebabli, a spokesperson for the General Direction of the National Guard. The National Guard will also cooperate with Ecuadorian Police on the inquiry through Interpol, according to Jebabli.

Meanwhile, Tunisian Police confirmed today that they are investigating narcotics transportation and importation. Tunisia has one of the strictest anti-drug policies.

Dozens of Thousands of Cocaine Seize din 2021

A similar situation happened when on December 2, the Ecuadorian Police reported seizing 133 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a banana container in the Port of Guayaquil, Guayas province.

On that same day, officers reported the seizure of 245 kilos of cocaine in two containers bound for Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.

Between November 21 and December 2 last year, Ecuadorian security forces confiscated 7,148 kilos of cocaine in ten raids.

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In that same port on December 1, The Ecuadorian Police, with the help of the Colombian Navy, confiscated 1,100 kilograms of cocaine in a container headed for the Colombian port of Buenaventura. Antwerp, Belgium was the final destination.

November 26, the Police and the Attorney General's Office disclosed findings of 1,530 kilos of cocaine in San Jacinto de Balzar, Guayas province, which was being transported in the false bottom of a truck through Pichincha province.

On November 25, authorities confirmed the discovery of 158 kilograms of cocaine in Guayas province. On the same day, the Police in El Oro province reported seizing 137 kilograms of cocaine hidden in banana boxes in a truck, and authorities in Imbabura province reported that a K9 unit had found 700 kilograms.

On November 23, the police seized 1,800 kilograms of cocaine, while the police seized another 902 kilos of cocaine the day before.

Finally, on November 21, police in Guayaquil claimed to seize 4,443 kg of cocaine to disrupt an international drug trafficking organization.

Despite the absence of significant cartels like those in Mexico and Colombia, Ecuador is one of the world's main cocaine shipping routes, with almost a third of Colombia's cocaine passing across its borders.

President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador declared a state of emergency in October to combat drug trafficking and other crimes in the country, declaring it a national broadcast at the time that "there is only one enemy: drug trafficking," which he claimed was the root cause of an increase in homicides, burglaries, theft, and robberies.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

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