Cocaine hidden in a banana box seized in the United Kingdom in 2021. Photo: The Independent/file photo.
An international investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) confirmed reports that banana containers shipped by Noboa Trading Co. Tcn SA, part of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s family conglomerate, were used to send large shipments of cocaine to Europe between 2020 and 2021.
According to analysts, the findings, based on confidential documents and encrypted chats from Sky ECC, constitute a “massive conflict of interest” for the president, undermining his discourse focused on the alleged war on drugs and organized crime.
In 2021, two alleged traffickers said on an encrypted message app that “no one but them” was allowed to smuggle cocaine in containers exported by Noboa Trading, according to Croatian prosecutors’ documents. pic.twitter.com/IRd6C1hooQ
— Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (@OCCRP) December 4, 2025
The report reveals that traffickers from the Balkans, linked to figures such as Serbian Nikola Đorđević (wanted in his country for cocaine trafficking) and Croatian Petar Ćosić (currently on trial for international trafficking, homicide, and criminal organization), claimed in their communications to have exclusive access to the cargo of the Ecuadorian exporter in the port of Guayaquil.
The intercepted messages match three real shipments from Noboa Trading that left on the MSC Mirella vessel, identified as MEDU9747725, in late 2020 and early 2021. These shipments totaled 535 kg of cocaine, with an estimated value in the European market exceeding €26 million.
“While Đorđević’s group was responsible for loading the cocaine at the point of origin, Croatian prosecutor files reveal that another Balkan drug gang was responsible for unloading the drugs from Noboa Trading’s containers when they arrived in Croatia.” According to the investigation, “this gang was allegedly led by Ćosić.”
Additionally, the company appears to be linked to seizures in Ecuador that, between 2020 and 2022, totaled nearly 700 kg of cocaine. Noboa Trading is part of Noboa Corporation, whose majority shareholder is Lanfranco Holding SA, a Panamanian firm transferred by Álvaro Noboa to his sons Daniel and Juan Sebastián in 2015, according to documents from the Pandora Papers.
Researchers note that the frequency of shipments from Noboa Trading to Europe, as the fourth-largest banana exporter in Ecuador, increases the risk of criminal infiltration.
Experts point to structural flaws at the port, such as weak controls, opaque contracts, and unrestricted access to cargo for external operators. As an example of this vulnerability, a contractor responsible for inspecting Noboa Trading’s cargo has faced legal proceedings four times, without conviction.
Regarding the OCCRP revelations, neither the Ecuadorian presidency nor Noboa Trading have responded to requests for comment on the investigation.
Oversight of a separate case announced
In the same context of drug trafficking in Ecuador, the member of parliament for the Citizen Revolution, Héctor Rodríguez, recently announced the oversight of a judicial case regarding drugs that involves a property also linked to the business group of the Noboa family.
Rodríguez pointed out that the Prosecutor’s investigation into the seizure of 193.96 kg of cocaine at the San Luis Ranch, Guayas province, on February 13 presents “serious irregularities.”
Rodríguez publicly condemned the dismissal of the case “without identifying those responsible, without confiscating the property, without destroying the seized drugs, and without investigating the financial flows,” and that the Prosecutor’s Office did not appeal the decision.
He stated that he will request from the Attorney General’s Office the reopening of the case and the appearance before parliament of the judge who dismissed the case and the vice president of San Luis SA, Klever Llerena. He will also request reports from Ecuador’s Superintendency of Companies and the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit regarding the Noboa Group’s share transfers and financial transactions.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SF
