Five Ecuadorian Political and Business Figures Charged in the U.S. Over Decade-Long Cocaine Smuggling
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on November 5 the unsealing of charges against five Ecuadorian nationals who were arrested for allegedly conspiring to import vast quantities of cocaine into the United States for more than a decade. The defendants include a former member of Ecuador's National Assembly, a former mayor who is now running again for the office, and the son of a former president of Ecuador.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald and DEA Administrator Terrance Cole announced the charges. McDonald said the defendants allegedly played a critical role in transforming Ecuador into a major transit hub for cocaine reaching the United States and Europe, and Cole said political influence, financial resources and powerful connections do not place anyone beyond the reach of American justice. The charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
According to the indictment, Jaime Estrada Medranda, 41, represented a district in Manabi Province in the National Assembly that includes Manta, a center of Ecuador's tuna-processing industry and home to one of its largest ports. His father, Jaime Estrada Bonilla, 71, was the former mayor of Manta, is currently running for the same office, and was the former president of the Port Authority of Manta. The two are also owners and executives of a major Manta-based seafood company and an Ecuadorian professional soccer club, and allegedly smuggled cocaine disguised within the seafood company's shipments in partnership with large-scale traffickers, including the leaders of Los Choneros and Los Lobos.
In one example cited in the indictment, on or about May 27, 2023, the Ecuadorian National Police seized approximately 1,444 kilograms of cocaine inside the company's shipping container at the Port of Guayaquil. In another, in or about 2026, Medranda and Bonilla allegedly sent representatives Geovanny Fernandez Menendez and William Jose Briones Lopez to meet Jacobo Abdala Bucaram-Pulley, an alleged drug and firearms trafficker and the son of the former president of Ecuador, to negotiate the export of a purported two-ton load of cocaine to Mexico for further shipment to the United States.
All five defendants are charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, which carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison; possession of machineguns, which carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years and a maximum of life; and conspiracy to possess machineguns, which carries a maximum of life. Medranda and Bonilla were arrested on or about November 2, 2026, while traveling in Panama, and Bucaram-Pulley, Menendez and Briones Lopez were arrested on or about November 4, 2026, in Ecuador. The prosecution is being handled by the office's National Security and International Narcotics Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan L. Bodansky, Jane Y. Chong, Jeffrey W. Coyle and Varun A. Gumaste in charge.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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