Spanish
On Wednesday, the Attorney General's Office requested that preventive detention be ordered against fifteen people arrested in the framework of an operation in which 103 assets of the Comandos de la Frontera, a dissident group of the ex-guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), were seized.
In the case called "Border Commands", the fifteen people are being prosecuted for alleged money laundering of more than 354 million dollars, the Public Ministry indicated.
The seizures took place after 68 raids in nine provinces, amid the fight against organized crime gangs that the government of President Daniel Noboa is carrying out, who classified them as "terrorists" after declaring, in January 2024, the country in 'internal armed conflict'.
Noboa assured that it is the "biggest blow to criminal economies in the history of Ecuador: more than 300 million dollars in assets seized from the 'Comandos de la Frontera', dissidents of the FARC".
Corporate structure
The Minister of the Interior, John Reimberg, detailed on Tuesday that the criminal organization was allegedly dedicated to money laundering, mainly in the province of Sucumbíos, bordering Colombia, which was led by Roberto Carlos Álvarez Guerra, alias 'manager', an "active and alleged leader of the armed group 'Comandos de la Frontera', who is responsible for the death of police officers, military personnel, and civilians".
"With his wife, children, and other members of his family circle, they constituted a corporate scheme to introduce large amounts of money into the national financial system through illicit activities such as organized crime for drug trafficking," he pointed out.
Another of the key figures was Juan Carlos Chulca Chiliquinga, alias "Chavalo", who has unjustified income of more than 9 million dollars, which is not related to the declared economic activities, the Ministry indicated, specifying that he is also the brother of alias "manager".
Reimberg noted that the operations within the framework of the investigations were carried out in three other countries (which he did not reveal), "where they would have links and companies".
Estates
Among the seized assets of greater extension are two farms totaling 620 hectares in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, as well as a 470-hectare farm in Esmeraldas (bordering Colombia), the minister said, adding that 10 people were arrested and five were notified in prisons. Among other assets are lubrication shops, hardware stores, mechanical workshops, warehouses, lots and land with African palm crops (economic artery of their illegal activities), mansions, houses, apartments, gas stations, warehouses, parking lots.Eleven military personnel killed
On July 12th, the court sentenced five people to 13 years in prison for the crime of organized crime, accused of being part of the structure of the Border Commands. In addition, eight others were sentenced for the same crime to 10 years in prison, who, according to the Prosecutor's Office, formed a network dedicated to drug trafficking, arms trafficking and money laundering that operated on the border between Ecuador and Colombia and that would be linked to several criminal acts committed between 2023 and 2024. That case came to light at the end of August 2024, when security forces carried out a simultaneous operation in Pichincha, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Guayas, Orellana and Sucumbíos. According to police investigations, this criminal gang was behind the shipment of cocaine shipments to Mexico and Spain. The Border Commands are blamed for the killing of eleven Ecuadorian soldiers in an ambush during an operation against illegal mining carried out in May in the Alto Punino area, located between the Amazonian provinces of Orellana and Napo, where three of the attackers also died.
