(3 Mar 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cayambe, Ecuador - 3 March 2023
1. Various shots of police guarding truck with drugs that will be destroyed with new encapsulation method
2. Bricks of drugs
3. Various of Ministry of the Interior workers unloading the drugs from the truck for destruction
4. Frklift taking drugs for chemical analysis.
5. Police guarding the drugs
6. Various shots of the chemical analysis of the drug to see the degree of purity before being destroyed.
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Edmundo Mera, Undersecretary for Drug Controls at the Ministry of the Interior:
"On this occasion this diligence is going to destroy three tons of cocaine hydrochloride, seized from several areas of the country. The method that we are going to use, due to time and security mainly is encapsulation. This is not a method if not that it is doing applied already in the country since 2018 and has served us enormously to destroy large quantities of drugs."
8. Edmundo Mera watching the chemical analysis of the drug.
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Edmundo Mera, Undersecretary for Drug Controls at the Ministry of the Interior:
"The proportions needed to make these mixtures (encapsulation) is 40% drugs, 40% waste and 20% cement and accelerants."
10. Ministry of Interior workers placing broken glass and cocaine bricks on the metal belt for destruction and mixing for encapsulation.
11. Various of broken glass and cocaine bricks being placed on the metal strip
12. Close up of sign saying mixing area for encapsulation.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quito, Ecuador - 3 March 2023
13. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luisa Fernandez, Regional Project Manager the UN Office on Drugs and Crime:
"Let's say went from (incinerating) five tons (of drugs) a month to doing an encapsulation of five tons (of drugs) in four hours."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cayambe, Ecuador - 3 March 2023
14. Industrial mill that destroys the drug together with crystals.
15. Drug destroyed together with crystals.
16. Various of the destroyed drugs along with glass being taken to be mixed together with cement and chemical accelerants
17. Area where the encapsulation of the drug is performed.
STORYLINE:
Ecuadorian authorities have standardized a method to destroy drugs which h allows them to keep up with the recent increase in seizures.

The load destroyed on Friday is part of a record seizure made on Sunday of almost nine tons of cocaine found in a banana container bound to Belgium, worth of 330 million dollars.

The method, known as encapsulation, was recommended by the local program of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, as a guidance that allows them to speed up the destruction, which otherwise would take them longer, saving also storage space.

Edmundo Mera, Undersecretary for Drug Control of the Ministry of the Interior, said they have been working with the method since 2018 but now have fully adopted it to neutralize some narcotics.

n this case, cocaine, cocaine paste and base, heroin and calcium chloride are processed are some of the drugs that can be destroyed with this method as they can be pulverized and fused with other residues.

Authorities work along with a company hired for the process, which mixes the narcotics with cement, lime, concrete accelerators and other types of waste such as expired medicine, destroyed contraband items, or glass.

Once the bricks are ready, they are deposited in safety cells or pools which will be sealed with cement when they are filled and are not suitable for construction.

Reversing the process has a higher cost than obtaining new drugs, making it not attractive to criminal groups.



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