Treasury Sanctions Major Ecuador-Based Cocaine Network Linked to Violent Gangs and Mexican Cartels

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 15 Ecuador-based targets and identified as blocked property 10 vessels involved in covertly shipping thousands of kilograms of cocaine each month from South America to Mexico, destined for distribution in the United States.  Members of the network targeted today are affiliated with Los Choneros and Los Lobos, which are two of Ecuador’s most violent Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and maintain ties to Mexican FTOs. 

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is relentlessly targeting the narcoterrorist networks that profit from poisoning Americans,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Working alongside our law enforcement partners, we will continue to disrupt the cartels’ drug trafficking operations and protect our borders.”

Operating under the guise of legitimate fishing businesses, a fleet of Ecuador-based vessels near Manta, Ecuador, secretly transfers cocaine to small power boats—known as go-fast vessels—that transit north through the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPAC), en route to the United States.  The cocaine is then smuggled through Mexico by FTOs like the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG).