HomeNewsBrief'Colombian Rastrojos Dominate Ecuador Drug Trade'
BRIEF

'Colombian Rastrojos Dominate Ecuador Drug Trade'

ECUADOR / 16 APR 2012 BY TATIANA FARMARZI EN

Colombian drug gang the Rastrojos may now control almost all the drug trafficking routes in Ecuador, shipping their product to Mexican groups like the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel, according to reports.

El Comercio reports that, according to police intelligence, the Rastrojos dominate almost all routes for trafficking drugs through Ecuador, and are working to control the routes through Esmeraldas, on the Pacific coast, and Carchi and Sucumbios, on the border with Colombia.

According to the report, the Rastrojos send drug shipments by sea from Ecuador's ports to Mexican groups like the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Zetas.

The Rastrojos' main operating bases in Ecuador are in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, an inland province to the northwest of the country, and Manabi, on the Pacific coast.

InSight Crime Analysis

Juan Carlos Calle Serna (pictured), brother of the leaders of the Rastrojos, was captured in Quito last month. He was likely residing there in part to avoid pressure from the Colombian authorities. However, the reports on the Rastrojos’ operations in Ecuador indicate that the country is far more than just a safehouse for the Colombian organization’s leaders. Indeed, Calle Serna was reportedly tasked with managing the organization's foreign contacts.

Rastrojos bosses Luis Enrique and Javier Antonio Calle Serna have allegedly been negotiating a surrender deal with the US. However, if the Rastrojos do now control the majority of the drug trade through Ecuador, this suggests that the brothers would be giving up an extremely powerful network, and that the US would need to offer them substantial concessions in order to make a deal.

The reports that Ecuador's drug routes are controlled by a Colombian gang point to the fact that the country's drug trade is dominated by foreign organizations. The Sinaloa Cartel is thought to have a presence there, as is the organization of Colombian trafficker Daniel "El Loco" Barrera. An recent assessment by the Ecuadorean military reportedly found that three of the four main entry points for drugs lay on the Colombian border, while the main exit points were all on the Pacific coast.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BOLIVIA / 8 MAR 2023

InSight Crime reviews Latin America and the Caribbean's cocaine seizure date from 2022 to find out what it reveals about…

COLOMBIA / 10 MAY 2023

Roldán was found shot dead on May 6 near the town of Fredonia in the Colombian department of Antioquia, Ecuador’s…

COLOMBIA / 28 DEC 2022

Colombian President Gustavo Petro's Total Peace plan faces a very tough road ahead. Can over 20 criminal groups really all…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…