HomeNewsBriefDiscovery of Coca Plantations in Ecuador Points to FARC
BRIEF

Discovery of Coca Plantations in Ecuador Points to FARC

ECUADOR / 8 APR 2013 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

Authorities have destroyed two coca plantations on the Ecuadorean side of the country's border with Colombia in the latest discovery to shine a light on the small scale but seemingly growing coca cultivation in Ecuador, which is likely linked to Colombia's FARC guerrillas.

The Ecuadorean military burned approximately 8,500 coca plants hidden in one and a half hectares of thick undergrowth just 100 meters from the river that divides Colombia and Ecuador, reported AFP.

The army unit discovered the plants in the northeastern province of Sucumbios, which borders the Colombian coca growing region of Putumayo. 

In 2012, the Ecuadorean military destroyed over 173,000 coca plants and 3,000 poppy plants in the border region, mostly in the provinces of Sucumbios in the east and Esmeraldas in the West.

InSight Crime Analysis

According to the last United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime crop monitoring report on Ecuador, in 2009 just 25 hectares of coca was under cultivation in the country.

The size of the coca plantations recently discovered would suggest cultivation currently remains small scale, is well-hidden and very close to the border. However, they would also suggest the total area under cultivation has grown considerably since the report was released.

Cultivation in the region is likely to be linked to the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which oversees much of the coca cultivation in Colombia and, according to InSight Crime's field investigations, has been consolidating its presence in the border region in recent years.

The rebels sell their coca to Colombia's BACRIM, or process and sell the cocaine to larger criminal organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel. 

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.

Tags

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

COCAINE / 22 MAR 2022

Rampant piracy along Ecuador’s coastal provinces is forcing hundreds of fishermen to leave their profession and the sea out of…

CHONEROS / 20 JUL 2023

The Choneros were once Ecuador's premier drug trafficking gang. InSight Crime documents their steady rise and their rapid fall.

CHINA AND CRIME / 11 OCT 2021

Contraband Chinese cigarettes are pouring into Latin America, infiltrating old smuggling routes and threatening longstanding criminal empires.

About InSight Crime

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…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…