Seizure of 1,252.8 kg of cocaine in the port of Guayaquil

The Ecuadorian National Police seized a shipment of 1,252.8 kilograms of cocaine during an intervention carried out in a maritime port in Guayaquil.

The shipment, which had Spain as its final destination, was detected using profiling techniques and risk analysis applied to an export cargo. Operation Fénix – 0414 is part of the permanent controls that the institution maintains in the country's port facilities to detect shipments linked to the international trafficking of controlled substances.

During the inspection, police personnel identified a container transporting 1,080 cardboard boxes and ordered a thorough inspection. In the procedure, a specialized canine issued a positive alert on several boxes, which allowed for a detailed inspection of the corrugated material.

Officers located a substance impregnated between the layers of cardboard, used to hide the drug and make its detection difficult. Preliminary homologated identification tests confirmed that it was cocaine, with a total weight of 1,252.8 kilograms, equivalent to approximately 12,528,000 doses.

The seized cargo would have an approximate value of USD 2,850,120 in the national market, USD 37,584,000 in the United States, and USD 58,568,400 in Europe. With this intervention, the National Police prevented more than a ton of cocaine from being transported to international markets and caused economic damage to drug trafficking structures.

The National Police maintains permanent control and surveillance operations in the country's maritime ports, strengthening profiling, inspection, and specialized detection actions to identify and neutralize shipments of controlled substances destined for international trafficking.