FBIS3-52033
"drlat019_p_94002"
FBIS-LAT-94-019
Document Type:Daily Report
29 Jan 1994
Ecuador
Colombia's Cali Cartel Expands Into Ecuador
PA2801020594 Paris AFP in Spanish 0211 GMT 27 Jan 94
PA2801020594
Paris AFP
Language: Spanish
Article Type:BFN
[Text] Quito, 27 Jan (AFP) -- Colombia's Cali Cartel has
expanded its operations into Ecuador, Colonel Telmo Erazo,
director of investigations and Interpol liaison for the
Ecuadoran police, stated here today. According to Erazo,
Colombian narcotraffickers are using Ecuador as a bridge to ship
cocaine into the international market.
"There are clues that the cartel is exerting influence in
our
country, and we are working to combat this," Erazo told newsmen.
The head of the counternarcotics squad does not dismiss that
after the death of Pablo Escobar Gaviria, head of the Medellin
Cartel, Cali's criminal organization has gained control of the
drug business worldwide.
DEA reports indicate that the Cali Cartel is supplied with
Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine paste, which is later processed in
laboratories located in jungle regions of southern Colombia,
especially in the Putumayo region along the Ecuadoran border.
The organization is also conducting large money laundering
operations in Ecuador and in Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina,
according to police spokesmen.
Over the past few days Ecuadoran, authorities have seized
cocaine paste and cocaine hydrochloride, which were camouflaged
in shipments bound for the United States and Europe. Several
Spanish passengers, as well as passengers of other
nationalities, presumably linked with drug trafficking, have
been arrested in operations staged at the Guayaquil and Quito
international airports.