A court in Loja sentenced Pablo S. to 22 years in prison on 28 September 2026 for illicit drug trafficking, after police found 731 kg of cannabis hidden inside metal scaffolding near Ecuador’s border with Peru.[1][2]
The seizure took place in Amaluza, in the Espíndola canton of Loja province.[1] Anti-narcotics police acting on a tip searched a property where five people were loading metal scaffolding onto a truck; the structures had been altered and contained a green substance that tested positive for cannabis.[1][2] The scaffolding and the truck were moved to the Loja police command, where officers counted 150 pieces of contaminated scaffolding and weighed 731,000 grams of cannabis.[1][2]
The tribunal convicted Pablo S. and acquitted the other four defendants, finding that they did not know what the metal structures contained.[1][2] The prosecutor’s office said the conviction rested on testimony from the officers involved, a technical inspection report and the evidence log.[1]
Article 220 of Ecuador’s penal code punishes illicit trafficking in controlled substances with up to 26 years in prison.[1][2]