Mexico’s Cartels Are Exporting Their Bloody Rivalry to Ecuador and Beyond

The two most powerful drug rings are locked in a turf war over control of a key South American smuggling route. The bodies are piling up.

By Ryan Dubé of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Corruption flourished as drug traffickers bought off judges, politicians and state security officials, prosecutors said. “They realized that the weak spot in the region was Ecuador,” said Fausto Salinas, former head of Ecuador’s police. 

Sinaloa joined with Telmo Castro, an Ecuadorean army captain who used military vehicles to transport cocaine from the border with Colombia to the Ecuadorean coast, according to Ecuadorean police. Mexican pilots picked up the drugs at clandestine runways.

Castro earned about $600,000 a load, Jorge Cifuentes, a Colombian who was one of Sinaloa’s top cocaine suppliers, said during the 2018 U.S. trial of Sinaloa boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Castro was killed in prison in 2019."

"The Choneros took over the route when Prado was arrested in Colombia in 2017. He was extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded guilty in 2018 to drug smuggling. In his absence, the Choneros expanded their work for Sinaloa across coastal Ecuador."

"'In 2022, traffic officials in Manta pulled over a black Chevrolet Tahoe carrying $7 million in drug money. The officials kept the cash and released the driver, a Mexican Jalisco member." 

"Macías oversaw the Choneros from prison. Armed inmates protected him as he moved among amenities including a private gym and a pool with ducks."