He had accused the Ecuadorian Los Choneros gang and its imprisoned leader, whom he linked to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, of threatening him and his campaign team days before the assassination.
That year, nearly one-third of the cocaine seized by customs authorities in Western and Central Europe came from Ecuador, double the amount reported in 2018, according to a United Nations report citing data from the World Customs Organization. Dutch officials also made their country's largest-ever cocaine seizure last month — nearly eight tonnes — in a container of Ecuadorian bananas.
They have found companies willing to be complicit in trafficking, or have paid off, threatened or kidnapped truck drivers and other workers to help get cocaine into shipments. In Guayaquil, where maritime shipping containers are part of the landscape, people live in fear these days.