Shipment of 4.3 tons of drug fails from Ecuador

Ecuadornews:

The antinarcotics forces of Guatemala seized 4.3 tons of cocaine that were abandoned in Pacific waters, a shipment allegedly coming from Ecuador.

The drug was found floating in 113 bags on Saturday and then processed at a military base in the southern town of San José, where prosecutors and police accounted for 4,378 kilos of cocaine, the Guatemalan Public Ministry said in astatement.

The Prosecutor General’s Office described the seizure carried out this past weekendas “historic”, through international cooperation.

Accordingto that agency, the seizure of the cocaine shipment was achieved “after acombined operation of the Guatemalan Naval Force with the United States Armed Forces, through information provided by Ecuador.”

According to the first investigations, the substance was located inside a vessel in Pacific waters from Ecuador, after receiving information provided by the aut horities of this country, adds the Office of the Prosecutor.

The Public Ministry, through the Office of Narcotics Crime, prosecuted the scene at the Pacific naval base on Saturday night and early morning, after they were seized the 113 cells, said the entity.

The alleged drug traffickers, who transported the drugs in boats, “at the moment of observing the presence of the authorities” abandoned the cocaine packages “on the high seas,” the bulletin on the operation says, inwhich no arrests were reported.

The shipment was 180 nautical miles off the Guatemalan coast.

The Office of the Prosecutor against Drug Trafficking and the Anti-Narcotics Police accounted for a total of 4,378 cocaine packages, which could mean 4.3 tons of narcotic drugs. However, the packages were not heavy on the scene, because itis the National Institute of Forensic Sciences of Guatemala (Ina cif) the body in charge of executing this process, said Julia Barrera, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor’s Office.

The General Subdirectorate for Analysis and Antinarcotic Information of the National Civil Police reported that the value of the packages accounted for is approximately 449.8 million quetzales (about 58.4 million dollars).

The drug was transferred to the warehouses of the Subdirectorate General ofAnalysis of Anti-narcotics Information (Sgaia) of the Police, located in zone 1of the Guatemalan capital.

The Public Ministry continues with the proceedings in this case of drugtraf ficking. Yesterday the Armed Forces carried out patrols in the sector tocapture the drug traffickers who threw the drug into the sea.

This year, Guatemala has seized cocaine presumably sent from Ecuador

In2017, the Central American country seized 13.6 tons of cocaine, a new record that exceeded the 12.8 tons of cocaine seized in the year that preceded it.

According to reports on drug trafficking, 90% of the cocaine that arrives in Guatemalapasses by light aircrafts, boats and even submarines. That country is a transit route for drug shipments from South America to Mexico and the United States.

Two more hits this year

Last November the Guatemalan authorities discovered 15 packages of cocaine in a covelocated on the floor of a boat type boat that a month before had been found inthe municipality of San Andrés Villa Seca.

In February, two Ecuadorians (Carlos Homero Díaz Chila and Edison Bernabé DelgadoMero) and a Colombian (Milton Alfredo Quiñónez Cortés) were detained in a boatin the Pacific, with a shipment of 707 kilos of cocaine. (I)

Source: https://www.expreso.ec/actualidad/narcotrafico-traficodedroga-ecuador-guatemala-DE2530621