That’s a lot cocaine !
The drugs were bound to Europe as each sack, estimated to be worth around $50,000 (£39k), was labelled with airlines such as Etihad, British Aiways, Lufthansa and KLM.
Incredible footage showed soldiers surrounded by the 733 bags of cocaine alongside a weapons cache.
The Ecuadorian army said: “It is presumed that this material could have been transported to the markets of Asia, Europe and North and Central America, using low-performance light aircraft.
“This operation represents a strong weakening of the operational, logistical and financial capacity of drug trafficking worldwide, generating a loss of 50,000 dollars per kilo, approximately more than 1 billion dollars in the international market.
“The success of the military operation is the product of more than six months of the execution of observation and surveillance strategies carried out by our military intelligence,” it added.
Troops used a technique known as encapsulation to destroy the drug, pulverising the seized blocks with waste before mixing the resulting fine powder with cement, sand and glass.
The method prevents cocaine from contaminating the environment or being recovered, they say.
Authorities believe the cocaine belonged to the Fatales gang, a faction of the Choneros, one of Ecuador’s most prominent criminal groups, InSight Crime reports.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/10198917/worlds-biggest-cocaine-bust-1billion-shock-video/
