by The Ecuadorian authorities, in alliance with the UN, have implemented a program to transform the blocks of cocaine seized from drug traffickers into construction material for the works that will eventually be carried out in that nation.
According to a report published by Deutsche Welle, Ecuadorian entities made the decision to give the drug a new use because a large amount of narcotics has been continuously confiscated in that country and there is already capacity to continue storing that material.
For this reason, the determination was made to start using cocaine as an input to produce cement that can be used in the construction sector.
How is cocaine cement produced?
The transformation of the drug into a construction material is carried out through a process carried out in a waste plant, in which Hundreds of blocks of cocaine are crushed and mixed with other disposable materials such as expired medications, glass, and trash.
Once all the components are pulverized to the point of becoming a powder, they are combined with cement, sand and water to produce concrete with the quality necessary to be used in construction.
Those who are in charge of this operation, in collaboration with the UNODC (UN entity specialized in narcotics), have managed to develop a process that provides a concrete that does not allow the drug to leak into the ground and therefore it is not possible to recover it. Therefore, it is not possible to use that material for the purpose of producing another type of hallucinogen.
As indicated by the Ecuadorian authorities to the German media, turning cocaine into concrete is much more efficient than burning the drug, since it takes less time. This is because it takes about 12 hours to incinerate a ton of cocaine.
So far, the technical team that operates in the waste treatment plant, located on the outskirts of Quito, has managed to process more than 350 tons of drugs and the concrete produced will be used in the construction of various structures and paving works.
Ecuador is the third country in the world with the most drugs seized
Ecuador, which in 2021 broke its record for drug seizures, is now the country with the third most seizures in the world, Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo said, citing an annual United Nations report. The country “is the third country in the world that seizes the most drugs: between 2021 and so far this year, they add up to more than 300 tons,” Carrillo wrote on his Twitter account.
The most recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicates that Ecuador is the third country with the most cocaine seizures (6.5%), behind Colombia (41%) and the United States (11%). The Ecuadorian authorities confiscated in 2021 the mark of 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. In the first half of this year, seizures exceeded 100 tons.
Carrillo added that the anti-drug policy of the government of right-wing Guillermo Lasso “provides good results.” Earlier in a press conference, the minister pointed out that Ecuador, located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest cocaine producers, “is no longer a transit country and is now considered an export country” of drugs.
Due to this problem with drug trafficking that overwhelms Ecuador, President Guillermo Lasso asked the United States for “an Ecuador plan.” to fight against this scourge, alluding to the initiative promoted for decades by Washington in neighboring Colombia.
Ecuador is “threatened by organized crime, by drug trafficking, given that in the last 15 years, to put it mildly, there have been permissive governments with this illegal activity,” Lasso said during a business forum.
“Just as at one point Colombia proposed the Colombia plan to the United States, my intention is to propose an Ecuador plan at this time when we need our great and good friends like the United States and Europe to face this problem,” he declared.
