About 2.8 tons of drugs seized since 2021 were stolen of a warehouse of the Technical Secretariat of Drugs of Ecuador, which was guarded by a police officer, reported General Giovanni Ponce, national anti-drug director.
Four people in police clothing entered the organization (in charge of the presidency) in the Amazon town of Tena (east) to “Stole 2,800 kilograms of drugs that were in this place,” the officer said, without specifying the type of drug stolen.
He added that the agent who guarded the warehouse was subdued by the thieveswho broke security doors and fled with the drug in a truck, which was later located in a nearby town.
Ponce indicated at a press conference that in operations they allowed the arrest of three suspects, after which “The place where the truck with the stolen drug was abandoned is determined”.
“The truck has already been recovered,” said the police chief.
He noted that “we are in the corresponding skills to determine if there is any missing drugBut apparently that’s not going to happen.”
After the fact, the Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carillo, ordered “start immediately the drug destruction process“.
Ecuadorlocated between Colombia and Peru -considered the world’s largest producers of cocaine-, ceased to be a transit country and now faces drug trafficking on a large scale through its ports on the Pacific.
In 2021 Ecuador confiscated the annual record of 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. In the first quarter of this year, it seized 52 tons.
