Ecuadornews:
In the trial against Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in the United States, Ecuador was mentioned several times as part of the countries that the drug trafficker involved in his illicit business. Three ghost companies were created that they used to launder the drug money in the country.
Andean Airlines Lincandisa S.A., Comercializadora Empresarial Team Busines S.A. and Gestors of Ecuador Gestorum S.A., are the three companies created to wash the narco-bakery, according to the newspaper El Telégrafo.
Lincandisa S.A was dedicated to transport by air, while Gestorum S.A. to legal and accounting advice. Currently they are dissolved and in liquidation.
In the testimonies during the days of the hearing of this trial, which ended up declaring “El Chapo” guilty, several connections with Ecuador were revealed.
Alex Cifuentes, brother of Jorge Cifuentes, Colombian narco, was one of those who gave his testimony before the United States justice and, in his version, announced that an Ecuadorian judge “was bribed” with USD $ 500 thousand dollars to “fix the case “of the military Telmo Castro, who has been designated as one of the cartel’s partners in Ecuador.
Another testimony was from the ex-deputy for Sinaloa (Mexico), Lucero Sánchez López, who said he knew about ghost companies and that they were created in Ecuador by Elkin de Jesús López Salazar for money laundering.
According to the Superintendency of Companies of Ecuador, says the journalistic investigation, these companies are shareholders among themselves. One of the administrators is the Colombian Nicholls Eastman Winston, who is a fugitive and is part of the “black list” of the US Department of the Treasury.
José Almeida, Deputy General Director of Tax Compliance of the SRI, referred to these three companies. “What we have verified is that these have been purged from the registers because there is no real economic activity. The records are closed when there is no evidence of activity.” (I)
