Ecuador Police Seize 469 Kg Cocaine Shipment Labeled With Erling Haaland Image

Overview

• Ecuadorian anti-narcotics agents stopped a suspicious truck following an anonymous tip and found 370 green rectangular packages hidden in a false bottom that totaled 469 kilograms of cocaine.
• Police released video showing the packages with stickers of Erling Haaland and said the driver was arrested during the operation, with a woman identified as María R. also taken into custody near Tulcán.
• Authorities estimated the shipment's value at about $842,000 on the domestic market, more than $11 million if sold in the United States, and over $19.6 million in Europe.
• Law enforcement and reporting note that traffickers commonly use celebrity images to brand shipments as a way to signal which criminal network produced the product and which client it is for.
• The seizure adds to heavy recent interdiction totals in Ecuador and underlines the country's role as a storage and transit hub for cocaine moved from Colombia and Peru toward North American and European markets.