Special report
Security on the Ecuador Border
The Ecuador border is where Colombia's cocaine starts its trip out of the country. This is who controls it, how they work with Ecuador's gangs, and what it means.
Where: Nariño and Putumayo, along the border with Ecuador: from Tumaco on the Pacific, through Ipiales and the Rumichaca crossing, to the rivers of lower Putumayo. The groups also work inside Ecuador, in Sucumbíos, Orellana, Carchi and Esmeraldas.
1Why the Ecuador border
Nariño grows more coca than any other department, and Tumaco more than any other town: 31,300 hectares in 2024. Coca on the Pacific coast grew 14% that year. Two border towns in Putumayo, Puerto Asís and Valle del Guamuez, had almost 19,000 hectares between them. Cocaine seized in the border towns more than doubled in two years, from 86,786 kilos in 2023 to 195,862 in 2025.
What it meansThis is the start of the cocaine route out of Colombia: by sea from Tumaco, and overland through Ecuador.
2Who has the guns
Mordisco's Franco Benavides front operates in the mountains of Nariño, in towns like Policarpa. The Comandos de la Frontera are based in lower Putumayo. Their leader, alias "Araña," was captured, and in August the president signed his extradition to the United States. Comuneros del Sur, a group that split from the ELN, joined Petro's peace talks and handed over 585 explosive devices in April 2025. Its commander, alias "H.H.," is a fugitive, and the president has signed his extradition too.
What it meansThe new government treats the last government's peace partners as criminals. In the president's words, "the so-called Total Peace failed resoundingly."
3One business on both sides of the border
The Colombian groups and Ecuador's gangs work as partners. The Comandos de la Frontera move cocaine with Los Lobos to ports near Guayaquil. Mordisco's Oliver Sinisterra front works with Los Tiguerones, and his Urías Rondón front with Los Choneros. Inside Ecuador, they run illegal gold mines and extortion. On October 2, Ecuador's army killed five members of Los Lobos and the Comandos de la Frontera who were extorting gold miners in Orellana.
What it meansColombian groups grow and process the cocaine; Ecuador's gangs move it to the ports.
4Colombia hunts Ecuador's gangsters too
On September 10, the president announced that Colombian police, working with Ecuador's intelligence service, had captured a Los Tiguerones coordinator, alias "Comandante 7," in Soacha, for extradition to Ecuador. On September 27, the president announced the arrest in Sabana de Torres, Santander, of the wife and daughter of alias "Fito," the Los Choneros leader already extradited to the United States. Ecuador wants them for money laundering.
What it meansEcuador's gangsters have been using Colombia as a hiding place. The president: "Colombia won't be a hiding place for foreign criminals."
5Votes under orders
Before the June 21 presidential runoff, the Franco Benavides front ordered a weekend curfew in the La Cordillera area of Nariño, stopped work from Thursday to Sunday, and warned that anyone who didn't vote would be fined. In April, its men walked into a rural school in Policarpa and handed out school supplies with a printed message: "happy children with school supplies where the State has abandoned them."
What it meansIn parts of Nariño, the dissidents act as the government, down to the schools and the elections.
6The border crossing
In February, Ecuador put a 30% tariff on Colombian imports, citing border security. Along the border, the armed groups control the informal trails, the "trochas," used for smuggling and drugs. In September, the new government closed the holding zone that Petro's peace talks had set up in Valle del Guamuez, Putumayo.
What it means for usIf you cross into Ecuador by road, do it at the official crossing at Rumichaca. The trails around it are controlled by the armed groups.
The scorecard
Coca in 2024: Nariño first in Colombia; Tumaco 31,300 hectares. Cocaine seized in the border towns: 86,786 kilos in 2023, 132,354 in 2024, 195,862 in 2025. Children forced into armed groups in Nariño, January to August 2026: 9.
What it meansSeizures are rising fast, and so is the coca on the Pacific coast.
These groups use any space they're given to reset and grow. They need to be crushed, not contained.