QUITO (Reuters) -Police in Ecuador and Spain have arrested at least 30 people in simultaneous operations as part of an investigation into Albanian organized crime, the Ecuadorean attorney general's office said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors from both countries carried out 57 raids in six provinces of Ecuador and in four Spanish cities related to alleged money laundering and drug trafficking.
The raids occurred amid a military offensive launched by Ecuador President Daniel Noboa to combat criminal gangs in the South American country, which he has designated terrorists.
"The operation was carried out in collaboration with the attorney general's office in Spain (where 12 of the arrests were made and 450,000 euros were seized) with 45 prosecutors participating with their support staff," the Ecuadorean attorney general's office said via social media, without giving further details.
The money seized is worth around $483,000. Prosecutors also found cash and firearms, and seized property and vehicles.
Detainees included people from Colombia, Argentina, China, Spain, Ecuador and Albania, Ecuadorean police said, adding that the group was allegedly led by an Albanian citizen.
The group moved cocaine from Colombia to Tulcan, a border city in Ecuador, before being taken to collection centers across the smaller Andean country, said William Villarroel, the head of Ecuador's anti-narcotics police.
The drugs were then camouflaged in banana export containers for transport to Europe, he added.
The organization had privileged information on foreign trade documents and some of its members had connections to Ecuadorean exporters.
"In Ecuador they had six companies and in Spain they had four, with large commercial activity which facilitated money laundering," Villarroel said, adding that the group could not explain some $32 million in sales.
More people could be linked to the case, he said.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark Porter)
By Alexandra Valencia
