No one was detained when Ecuador’s National Police seized a parcel of marijuana at Manta’s bus terminal on Friday 30 October 2026.[1] The National Canine Unit found the package during an anti-drug check of interprovincial freight warehouses inside the terminal, in Manabí province.[1] The parcel had been sent from Quito as an interprovincial consignment and was flagged by a trained detector dog named CUMI.[1]
During the routine inspection of dozens of packages, CUMI alerted on a cardboard box in the Quito–Manta load, and officers isolated it for a check.[1] Specialists from the Judicial and Anti-Narcotics Police opened the consignment and a preliminary identification test on the greenish plant material was positive for cannabis sativa, which police call marihuana.[1] The official weighing put the seizure at 26 grams, which police estimated as about 52 doses intended for local sale in Manta and its outlying neighbourhoods.[1]
The load was logged as evidence and placed in the chain of custody at the Manabí Anti-Narcotics Headquarters stores.[1] The Attorney General’s Office received the crime report and opened an inquiry into the names of the sender and recipient on the shipping waybill.[1] Police Zone 4 said random checks of courier agencies, transport cooperatives and logistics sites in the Manta district would continue.[1] The National Police said it would keep watching key passenger and freight points to slow small-scale trafficking in Manabí.[1]
