Cocaine beneath the bananas: How Balkan traffickers exploited Ecuador’s presidential supply chain |
The global banana trade is one of the most tightly managed agricultural supply systems in the world, moving millions of tons of fruit annually from Latin America to Europe. But as recent investigative findings reveal, this same logistical infrastructure has been weaponized by organized crime. Balkan traffickers, leveraging encrypted communications, corrupt local networks, and the sheer volume of the fruit trade, managed to slip hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Europe hidden inside containers belonging to a company tied to Ecuador’s presidential family.
This emerging scandal – involving the Noboa Trading Co., a firm under the business empire of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s family – has exposed deep structural vulnerabilities in international shipping. It has also intensified political and legal scrutiny for a president who has publicly styled himself as an uncompromising enemy of narcotrafficking. The revelations illuminate how fruit shipments, trusted brands, and global supply chains can be quietly co-opted by organized crime syndicates operating thousands of kilometers away.
The investigation, driven by KRIK, OCCRP, and other partner organizations, begins with an encrypted Sky ECC conversation between Balkan traffickers in February 2021. In it, two individuals – identified only by PIN numbers in Croatian prosecution files – bragged about having “exclusive rights” to load cocaine into shipping containers exported by Noboa Trading Co. This was no vague claim. The traffickers listed exact vessel names, departure dates, and container numbers.
Their messages referenced three specific shipments moving from Ecuador’s massive Guayaquil port, one of the most important commercial hubs in Latin America. Reporters later confirmed that each of the containers they mentioned had indeed been shipped by Noboa Trading using official export records.
One of the containers, MEDU9747725, carried 430 kilograms of cocaine. The traffickers’ description matched shipping logs perfectly: the container left Ecuador on January 25 aboard the Liberian-flagged MSC Mirella. This degree of precision strongly suggests they had real-time intelligence inside the supply chain – and potentially inside the company’s banana-packing operations.
These shipments, transported between late 2020 and early 2021, held a combined 535 kilograms of cocaine. Conservative estimates place their street value at €26 million. The final container, holding 60 kilograms, was seized in March 2021 when it was offloaded at the Croatian port of Ploče.
The traffickers’ claims were not merely reckless bravado. They........