Ecuador spends $1.5 billion annually on organised crime fighting, says Noboa
President Daniel Noboa revealed the annual cost of anti-narcotics efforts and highlighted support from the US, Europe and other countries. Experts question the effectiveness of the approach.
Ecuador invests $1.5 billion annually against drugs, with international support
The Ecuadorian government allocates approximately 1.5 billion dollars annually to combating criminal groups linked to drug trafficking, said President Daniel Noboa on Thursday in statements to radio Élite, according to chicagotribune.com.
"We have to do our duties, our Armed Forces and our police," said Noboa, who specified that the State faces approximately 80,000 members of criminal gangs active in the country.
The president highlighted that Ecuador has received cooperation from the United States in the form of equipment, financial assistance and intelligence, as well as support from Italy, other European countries and nations such as Argentina, Brazil, Israel, South Korea and Japan.
Noboa also praised the Shield of the Americas initiative, a regional coalition driven by US President Donald Trump to carry out joint actions against cartels. "Finally there is a continental agreement on fighting drug trafficking," he declared.
However, the alliance with Washington has been subject to questioning for its lack of visible impact in reducing crime. Diego Pérez, lecturer at the School of Security and Defence of the Institute of High National Studies, warned in dialogue with The Associated Press that "dynamics of criminality in no country are reversed with a hard hand" and stressed the need to review indicators of social investment and generation of labour opportunities to neutralise criminal influence.
Criminal escalation in Ecuador intensified from 2021 onwards, when local gangs associated with Colombian and Mexican cartels stepped up their disputes over drug distribution routes, raising rates of contract killing, kidnapping and extortion.
Noboa attributed the growth of drug trafficking to the absence of border control with Colombia to the north and with Peru to the south. He noted that in the Colombian regions of Nariño and Putumayo—bordering Ecuador—there is "a record of coca cultivation", which directly affects the country. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the area planted with coca in Colombia reached 261,000 hectares in 2024.
International bodies indicate that approximately 70 per cent of world cocaine is exported from Ecuadorian territory. Since the beginning of the year, around a dozen Ecuadorian fishing vessels have been sunk by United States forces in the Pacific Ocean, after being identified as floating fuel stations in service of drug trafficking.
Source: Google News EC — Crime