The Ecuadorian Police seized 360 kilos of cocaine hydrochloride that were hidden in a rural area of the coastal province of Manabí, and which they presume were going to be sent to the United States, the institution reported.

Intelligence information took anti-narcotics agents to a property located in a rural area in the municipality of Puerto López, they inspected the place and found several packages hidden among the vegetation.

Eight black jute sacks containing 319 rectangular packages packed with coffee colored adhesive tape were found . After the corresponding tests, it was determined that the substance was cocaine hydrochloride, with a weight of 360 kilograms.

William Calle, police chief of Manabí, pointed out that they presume that the drug was going to be sent to the United States with the help of fishermen who leave from the coasts of the province in fast boats.

“Here there are several cases of people who many times do not dedicate themselves to fishing but rather to take drugs to Central America and to the United States,” he indicated.

The officer pointed out that in the U.S. a kilo of cocaine “costs around $20,000 or $30,000 dollars”, so what was seized would reach “7 million dollars”.

Calle also indicated that in this operation a man who was guarding the area where the substance was found, was detained, but that the judge who heard the case did not send him to prison because he determined that “it”had nothing to do” with drugs.

Surrounded by Colombia and Peru, the two largest producers of cocaine in the world, with several ports on its coasts, such as those located in Guayaquil, and an economy dollarized, Ecuador has become in recent years an important step for the trafficking of this drug which is directed mostly to Europe and the United States.

In 2025, security forces seized 227.1 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine, 67 tons less than those reported in 2024, when a record number of 294.61 was accounted, according to official data.

With information from EFE.