'World's largest cocaine bust' seizes $1 billion worth of coke bound for Europe, with shocking video showing huge bags of $50,000
A RECORD worth of cocaine worth $1 billion has been seized in one of the world's biggest ever drug busts.
EcuadorThe army's military found 22 tons of coke at a pig farm in Los Rios province and arrested one person.
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The drugs were bound to Europe Each bag, estimated to be worth around $50,000 (£39,000), was labeled with airlines including Etihad, British Airways, Lufthansa and KLM.
Incredible footage showed soldiers surrounded by 733 bags of cocaine next to a weapons cache.
The Ecuadorian military said: “It is believed that this material may have been transported to the Ecuadorian islands markets of Asia, Europe and North and Central America, using low performance light aircraft.
“This operation represents a major weakening of the operational, logistical and financial capacity of the drug trade worldwide, generating a loss of US$50,000 per kilo, approximately more than US$1 billion on the international market.
“The success of the military operation is the result of more than six months of implementing observation and surveillance strategies carried out by our military intelligence,” it added.
Troops used a technique known as encapsulation to destroy the drug, pulverizing seized blocks of waste before mixing the resulting fine powder with cement, sand and glass.
The method prevents cocaine from contaminating the environment or being recovered, they say.
Authorities believe the cocaine belonged to the Fatales gang, a faction of the Choneros, one of the most prominent criminal groups in Ecuador. InSight Crime reports.
Ecuador has experienced a large increase in the number of refugees crime and violence in the past five years, as well as the international cocaine trade gangs began to exploit its ports, especially the largest, Guayaquil, as transit locations for transportation between the countries Colombia and Europe.
The discovery, which comes on top of an estimated 14 tons of cocaine seized from gangs this month, is a major victory for President Daniel Noboa's war against organized crime in Ecuador.
The country plunged into chaos when convicted gang leader 'Fito' escaped jail and authorities declared a national emergency.
Only a few days left in the new year, Gunmen in hoods hijacked a live TV broadcast.
Live footage broadcast from Ecuador's TC station in Guayaquil showed the masked gang brandishing weapons and bombs as they threatened people.
Shots were heard as some gunmen told staff members to lie down on the ground.
Members of the group were also seen pointing at the cameras and shouting 'no' Police“, before the live feed was cut.
Another gunman reportedly said, “We're on the air so they know we're not playing with the mafia.”
One of the hooded brutes is even said to have left a stick of dynamite in the reception area of the TV station.
And the Ecuador's ex-president has said he “weeps” for the country as rampant violence spreads across the streets of several cities.
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, 60, was president of Ecuador from 2007 and 2017.
The ex-president said he is fighting back tears as he watches his beloved country descend into deadly anarchy.
Correa said: “I have never seen such rapid, deep, serious destruction of a country in times of peace, without sanctions, without blockade.”
According to the ex-leader of Ecuador, international figures show that during his presidency there were 5.8 murders per thousand inhabitants.
This number increased to 42 murders per thousand inhabitants in 2023.
“That means we have gone from being the second safest country in Latin America – beating us only to Chile, which has twice as much per capita income as Ecuador – to one of the five most violent countries in the world… from total destruction,” the former president added.
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