By Islam El-Sakka
Federal prosecutors in New York have charged five Ecuadorians, including a son of former President Abdalá Bucaram, with conspiring to import tons of cocaine into the United States and Europe by concealing it in shipping containers carrying tuna.
Arrests and Defendants
Jacobo Abdala Bucaram-Pulley, 48, was arrested in Ecuador this month, while former National Assembly member Jaime Estrada Medranda, 41, was detained in Panama. The other defendants are Jaime Estrada Bonilla, 71, Geovanny Fernandez Menendez, 53, and William Jose Briones Lopez, 47. Court records did not list attorneys for any of them.
Trafficking Operation
Prosecutors allege that Medranda and his father, Bonilla, used their seafood company to help drug traffickers move large cocaine shipments out of Ecuador in containers packed with legitimate tuna. Bucaram-Pulley acted as a trafficker and intermediary for other drug networks, according to the grand jury indictment. All five face charges of conspiring to import cocaine, possessing machine guns, and conspiring to possess machine guns.
Ecuador's Drug Violence Context
Ecuador has become a major transit point for cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru, with rival cartels partnering with local gangs to control coastal ports. The U.S. attorney's office said the defendants played a critical role in turning Ecuador into a key corridor for the vast majority of cocaine destined for the U.S. and Europe, contributing to a surge in violence in recent years.
