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Machala buying coke

Workers haul the bunches to an assembly line, where the bananas are washed, weighed and plastered with stickers for European buyers. Owner Franklin Torres is monitoring all activity on a recent morning to make sure the fruit meets international beauty standards — and ever more important, is packed for shipment free of cocaine. Torres is hypervigilant because Ecuador is increasingly at the confluence of two global trades: bananas and cocaine. Shootings, homicides, kidnappings and extortions have become part of daily life , particularly in the Pacific port city and banana-shipping hub of Guayaquil. They have ruined our country. The country, which is not a major cocaine producer, was especially rattled when a presidential candidate known for his tough stance on organized crime and corruption — Fernado Villavicencio — was fatally shot at the end of an Aug. In addition to its proximity to cocaine production, cartels from Mexico, Colombia and the Balkans have settled in Ecuador because it uses the U. Authorities say Ecuador also gained prominence in the global cocaine trade after political changes in Colombia last decade. Coca bush fields in Colombia have been moving closer to the border with Ecuador due to the breakup of criminal groups after the demobilization of the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better-known by their Spanish acronym FARC. A record 2, metric tons of cocaine was manufactured in around the world, mostly in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. That year, nearly a third of the cocaine seized by customs authorities in Western and Central Europe came from Ecuador, double the amount reported in , according to a United Nations report citing data from the World Customs Organization. Large drug busts have become more frequent and within the past month, European authorities have made record-setting busts after inspecting containers carrying bananas from Ecuador. Authorities on Aug. Authorities in Greece and Italy also announced seizures of cocaine hidden in Ecuadorian bananas this year. Bananas headed to Europe are boxed at plantations, loaded into trucks that take them to massive warehouses in and around Guayaquil and transferred to maritime containers driven to an area port. Then the ships head northeast to the Panama Canal, cross to the Caribbean Sea, and go east across the Atlantic. Knowingly or not, banana growers, exporters, shipping corporations, port operators, private security companies, customs agents, agriculture officials, police, and buyers offer opportunities that drug traffickers have exploited. Some traffickers have created front companies to mimic legitimate banana exporters, while others have acquired legitimate businesses, including plantations. They have found companies willing to be complicit in trafficking. They also have paid off, threatened or kidnapped truck drivers and other workers to help get cocaine into shipments. Other traffickers have corrupted or intimidated police, customs agents, security guards and port workers to assist with — or ignore — tampering with containers at the ports. Drug trafficking has contributed to the number of violent deaths in Ecuador, which doubled from to , when 4, died, the most ever recorded in a year. The country is on track to break the annual record again, with 3, violent deaths tallied in the first half of In Guayaquil, where maritime shipping containers are part of the landscape, people live in fear these days. Convenience stores have floor-to-ceiling metal bars that prevent customers from entering from the sidewalk. Restaurants that survived the pandemic close early. That is more than three times the amount seized in National Police Gen. He said two ports have tested the scanners to smooth out internal procedures and train the people who will be working with the machines. The operator of the largest port in Guayaquil, Contecon Guayaquil S. Jose Hidalgo, executive director of the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador, said the industry faces greater exposure to trafficking than other commodity exports because of the volume of containers that it uses. Nonetheless, some exporters have been accused of being complicit or directly involved in trafficking cocaine. Hours after this story was published Monday, agriculture and customs officials in Ecuador announced in a statement that the administration had purged a government-run banana-export database. It annulled the profiles of export companies deemed to be fake or incomplete and revoked permits of plantations covering 16, hectares 39, acres determined to be nonexistent. Torres, the plantation owner, would like to see that type of troubled exporters kicked out of the industry. Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning. About Quartz Advisor. Business News. Updated September 4, Customs authorities in the Netherlands said on Aug. Suggested Reading Southwest Airlines and its activist hedge fund foe might become friends. Ford is offering car dealers extra cash to sell more electric trucks. Off English. Share this Video. Facebook Twitter Email. Reddit Link. Tesla earnings are coming. Here's what to know. Continue reading.