Ecuador-U.S. Joint Operation Dismantles CJNG-Linked Trafficking Network, 30+ Detained

In the early morning of September 24, 2026, Ecuador's National Police — over 320 agents — conducted simultaneous raids across eight cities in Guayas, Los Ríos and El Oro provinces (including Guayaquil, Daule, Samborondón, Ventanas, Babahoyo, Puebloviejo, Vinces and Machala), supported by roughly 50 U.S. Southern Command personnel and the DEA. The operation, the product of an approximately eight-month investigation, detained more than 30 people described by Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg as leaders and financiers of 'a complete drug-trafficking structure with direct links to Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación' — including the group's alleged leader, located on Mocolí Island, and its alleged financier, detained in Riberas del Batán (both in Samborondón). Officials said the cell operated exclusively on behalf of the Mexican cartel, moving Colombian cocaine by maritime routes toward Central America, the United States and Europe. On September 25, an Ecuadorian judge in Quito ordered preventive detention for 36 people processed in connection with the operation, along with a freeze on their bank accounts and a prohibition on transferring seized vehicles.