Now, some fishermen are being drawn into a far more lucrative trade: cocaine trafficking, with a single drug run paying $20,000 to $40,000, compared with the roughly $300 a month they can make from fishing. MANTA, Ecuador—In a city that calls itself the world capital of tuna, generations have made their living from the Pacific’s rich waters.
In 2017, Jhony Garay, another Manta fisherman, was arrested and jailed in the U.S. after he was caught shipping cocaine on his boat. He had embarked on that trip to get funds to rebuild his family’s home after an earthquake in 2016, said his mother, Elena Véliz. The U.S. has designated both gangs, which are known to work closely with Mexican cartels, as terrorist organizations.
Today, Ecuador’s two biggest gangs—Los Choneros and Los Lobos—are fighting for control of Manta and its strategic maritime route, national police say.
One fisherman in Manta said he was paid $30,000 to transport about two tons of cocaine in 2023. This week, a Manta judge ordered the release of 28 detained fishermen who had been picked up from two boats sunk by the U.S., after ruling that the operation was unauthorized and that the strike destroyed the crime scene.
In January, a vessel from Manta went missing after the crew alerted family members that drones and aircraft were following them, family members said. “It’s no longer seen as an isolated activity, but as a possible means for individual and family development,” he said. He says there are hundreds of Ecuadorean fishermen imprisoned in the U.S. and Central America.
The strikes are targeting a maritime cocaine supply chain that has become deeply entrenched in Manta. After handing off the drugs to another boat near the coast of Mexico, he returned to Ecuador and used the money to build a brick house to replace his family’s cane dwelling. Family members of some Manta fishermen insist they weren’t shipping drugs. Others say they might be involved in the drug trade, but are merely pawns of bigger, more nefarious forces. Relatives recently gathered on Manta’s waterfront with signs that read, “Justice for our fishermen. “So making a living that way can seem normal. Carlos Carrión, who lives in a fishing village on the outskirts of Manta, runs a group for family members of fishermen jailed abroad for drug smuggling. In Manta, their families are left in a desperate position.
