Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has spent the past year waging a very public war on gangs.
There have been troops in the streets, prisons under military control and a security referendum that gave his government sweeping new powers. It’s the kind of imagery that makes for strong headlines and, in the short term, has rattled some criminal networks. But there is an uncomfortable truth – you don’t beat entrenched organized crime with artillery alone; you beat it by bankrupting it, and right now, Noboa’s government is only halfway there.
In April 2024, voters approved measures that matter a lot to asset recovery lawyers and forensic accountants, even if most headlines focused on soldiers patrolling ports. Among these were the ability to expropriate seized property, broaden extradition and expand military-police cooperation. Those are golden opportunities to freeze and forfeit gang assets at speed, if the government can align its financial intelligence unit (UAFE), prosecutors, and the Office of the Attorney General into a truly integrated asset-tracing machine.
Despite the crackdown, there have been more than 4,600 homicides in Ecuador in the first half of 2025, many in coastal provinces that are under emergency rule. That’s not a sign the strategy is working, but that criminal revenue streams remain intact. When cartels and gold-mining mafias can launder, trade and ship products, they can buy more guns, recruit soldiers and adapt faster than the state can react.
“While traditional assets such as cash and gold remain central to illicit finance, the decentralized and often pseudonymous nature of cryptocurrencies has made them a tool for Ecuador’s criminal gangs.”
Everyone talks about Ecuador’s role in the global cocaine trade, but illegal gold has quietly become just as important. Criminal groups such as Los Lobos are embedded in mining regions, blending illicit doré into legitimate exports and moving it through Guayaquil’s shipping lanes or out via overland routes. The trade data doesn’t lie: exports to hubs such as UAE and India don’t match declared production volumes. That’s asset recovery gold dust, if you know where to look: at plant registries, assay lab records, customs declarations and corporate ownership filings, among other records.
While traditional assets such as cash and gold remain central to illicit finance, the decentralized and often pseudonymous nature of cryptocurrencies has made them a tool for Ecuador’s criminal gangs. This digital threat allows them to move and launder money with speed and secrecy, bypassing conventional banking regulations.
Despite the Central Bank of Ecuador not recognizing cryptocurrencies as legal tender, their purchase and sale are not forbidden, creating a gray area that criminals exploit. The UAFE has implemented anti-money-laundering/know your customer guidelines for virtual asset service providers, but enforcement is hard.
The lack of digital forensics experts, the perceived difficulty of tracing transactions on decentralized platforms, and a legal framework that is slow to adapt all hinder the government’s ability to tackle this problem. To address this, the Noboa administration must expand its asset-tracing efforts to include blockchain analysis, collaborate more closely with international partners, and streamline legal procedures to allow for the rapid freezing and seizure of digital assets.
“The state can take title to a trafficker’s apartment in Miami or a mining company’s Dubai bank account without a criminal trial.”
The Organic Law on Asset Forfeiture allows for non-conviction-based forfeiture of assets of illicit origin, even if they are held abroad. In theory, it means the state can take title to a trafficker’s apartment in Miami or a mining company’s Dubai bank account without a criminal trial. The problem? Bottlenecks initiating cases, a lack of specialist investigators, and a judiciary hesitant to push forward without a linked criminal conviction.
Noboa can still turn this into a genuine win, but action still has to be taken. To do this he has to:
- Create a gold and ports taskforce: This includes bringing mining regulators, customs, UAFE, and prosecutors under one roof.
- Go for interim freezes first: Don’t wait for a conviction to lock up inventory, receivables, or accounts payable tied to illicit trade.
- Internationalize the cases with cross-border recovery efforts: Send targeted mutual legal assistance requests to UAE and India on trade-value discrepancies and beneficial ownership, and use new extradition powers to pull back key financial operators.
- Treat ports as crime scenes, not checkpoints: Seize and forfeit assets tied to falsified freight paperwork, bogus phytosanitary certificates, and customs code manipulation.
Noboa’s current approval and legal authority are finite. Once the political mood shifts, or court rulings chip away at the new laws, the window to reform the asset-recovery playbook will narrow. If the administration can’t pivot from headline arrests to sustained financial disruption, the gangs will outspend, outlast and outgun the state. Security starts in the spreadsheets, not the streets. If Noboa doesn’t follow the money now, he may find that all the troop deployments in the world can’t buy the one thing Ecuador needs and desires most: lasting peace in a nation of turmoil.
