US$30 billion a year – Ecuador reveals size of local cartel trade

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa admitted Tuesday that cartels and gangs move US$30 billion worth of drugs, arms and other illicit goods through his country a year -- about a quarter of the country's GDP.

In a bid to underscore the severity of the once peaceful country's bloody security crisis, Daniel Noboa made the startling revelation during an interview with state television.

"That's a lot of dough, a lot of cash," said the 37-year-old Miami-born son of a banana billionaire. 

The vast sum is the equivalent of 24 percent of Ecuadorean GDP or the 2023 net profit of US online giant Amazon – one of the world's largest companies. 

Drug lords are fighting tooth and nail for control over smuggling routes that bring cocaine from neighbouring Colombia and Peru, through Ecuadorean ports, to markets in Europe, Asia and the United States. 

Noboa faces a tough April election run-off against a strong leftist opponent – with voters ready to offer their verdict on his "iron fist" approach to security.  

Noboa and his rival Luisa González were virtually tied in the first round of voting earlier this month, but the president lost heavily in coastal areas most hit by violence. 

By declaring a state of emergency and deploying the army to prisons and the streets to hinder gangs, Noboa succeeded in bringing down the sky-high murder rate last year.  

But the start of this year has seen another spike in violence and growing dissatisfaction with the state of the economy.

More than a dozen people were killed in the country's largest city Guayaquil over the weekend.  

On Friday, hitmen mowed down a cartel-busting special forces colonel.  

Facing the fresh wave of violence, Noboa replaced his interior minister.

– TIMES/AFP