Noboa proposed three U.N. measures against organized crime less than a day before raids
More than 320 Ecuadorian police officers and 50 U.S. Southern Command personnel participated in early-morning raids across the provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos and El Oro on Thursday, according to Ecuadorian authorities. The eight-month investigation identified a network that allegedly received drugs from Colombia, stored and transported the shipments through Ecuador, and sent them by sea to Central America, the United States and Europe.
In a post on X after the operation, Noboa connected the raids to the international cooperation he had urged in his U.N. address. “Yesterday, before the U.N., I spoke about a reality: no state can confront alone an enemy that crosses borders,” he wrote. “And today, under the direction of the National Police and with the support of the DEA and Southern Command, we dismantled a structure linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and arrested more than 30 people.”
Ecuadorian Interior Minister John Reimberg said the organization used ports in Guayaquil and Machala to store, transport and distribute large quantities of drugs. Authorities estimated that seizures made during the investigation were worth $322 million to the organization. Among those arrested were suspected leaders and financiers of the network, including an alleged leader detained in the exclusive Isla Mocolí area of Samborondón. Authorities said the operation continued Thursday morning.
Thursday’s raids came one day after Ecuadorian forces carried out a separate operation against Los Choneros, one of the country’s most powerful criminal organizations. Noboa said that operation killed a man known as “Charlie,” whom his government described as an important logistical and financial operator for international drug trafficking networks.
U.S. Southern Command commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan praised Ecuador’s forces after the Los Choneros operation, saying the United States remained committed to supporting partners in the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition against transnational criminal organizations.
In his speech at the United Nations, Noboa proposed three international measures to combat organized crime: a U.N.-based mechanism to track and freeze illicit financial flows; a permanent platform for sharing information among police, prosecutors and financial intelligence units; and greater recognition of transnational organized crime in U.N. conflict-prevention efforts.
Noboa said weapons used by criminal groups often cross several countries, while money generated by criminal organizations can be laundered far from where crimes occur. “The criminals have already globalized their cooperation,” he said, asserting that governments needed to do the same.