Recommended
The face of Norwegian footballer Erling Haaland has appeared on billboards, stickers, and television screens. Now, Ecuadorian police have found him in the most unexpected place: printed on the packages of a cocaine stash.
Police reported on Wednesday that near the border with Colombia, they seized a shipment of packages containing 369 kilograms of cocaine inside a truck, most of which were labeled with the image and name of the Norwegian goalscorer. The driver of the vehicle was also arrested.
The security force specified in a statement that when anti-narcotics agents were carrying out an operation following an anonymous tip early Tuesday morning on the Pan-American Highway, they noticed a suspicious truck. After searching it, they found 370 packages of drugs hidden in a double bottom built into the vehicle.
In images released by the police force, it can be seen that the packages were marked with the image of Haaland, who was one of the top scorers and most charismatic players during the World Cup held in Mexico, the United States, and Canada this past June and July. His figure sparked a creative wave of viral videos and images around the planet.
Next to a Haaland dressed in the Norwegian national team jersey, the World Cup trophy and a soccer ball also appear on the packages.
Among the seized merchandise displayed by the agents on the floor, one could also see a package with the name and image of the captain of the Argentine national team, Lionel Messi.
The official statement did not refer to the reason for the labeling. It is a common practice for drug traffickers to put the names of well-known sports figures and other celebrities on their shipments to identify which criminal network produced the merchandise and who the client is, among other reasons.
Ecuador is considered by authorities to be a logistical hub within the drug trafficking chain, where drugs are collected, stored, and distributed through Central American routes to the United States, although narcotics are also sent to Europe.
Police noted that a woman identified as María R., with Colombian identification documents, was arrested in the operation. The operation was carried out in an area known as Guagua Negro, near the border city of Tulcán, 246 kilometers north of the capital.
They added that the estimated value of that stash on the domestic market amounts to nearly 842,000 dollars. In the international market, it reaches more than 11 million dollars in the United States and more than 17 million euros in Europe.
Hours later, the police reported on their X account the seizure of 1.6 tons of cocaine hydrochloride during an operation in the province of Esmeraldas, also bordering Colombia, in the city of Muisne, 190 kilometers north of Quito.
The packages were found inside 40 jute sacks and were hidden on a boat. This time, the blocks carried a fake logo of the international television network CNN, according to images published by the Ecuadorian press and whose authenticity was confirmed to The Associated Press by the police press office.
The seized product represents a value of 1.8 million dollars in the Ecuadorian market and 48 million dollars in the US market, the police report added.
In Ecuador, local criminal gangs allied with cartels from Colombia and Mexico are in charge of managing drug routes and shipping narcotics, 80% of which come from Colombia and the rest from Peru.
In the first half of this year, the police reported seizing 80 tons of drugs, while in 2023, authorities confiscated almost 215 tons, mainly cocaine. In 2024, the amount reached almost 295 tons.
[Publicidad]