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.