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A fisherman who turned to smuggling to make money looks out over the port of Manta at sunset. (CNN)
The 'Transmission' from Tuna to Cocaine: An Ecuadorian Fisherman Reveals His Turn to Drug Trafficking
ECUADOR
Wednesday, April 23, 2025, 04:00 (GMT + 9)
A tale from Manta exposes how dwindling fishing and the promise of lucrative cocaine routes push seafarers into a dangerous business, as reported by CNN Latinoamérica.
"One more trip," the man says. "And then I'll stop."
.png) A fisherman by trade, born and raised in the coastal city of Manta, a place that was once known for tuna and tranquility, shares his story with CNN Latinoamérica.
These days, fish are harder to find. The trips are longer. And the money, he states, simply isn't there anymore. "As a fisherman, in a month you can earn US$ 300," he explains. "But with drugs, with the 'white'… that's the money, brother!"
One trip, carrying cocaine by sea to Mexico, pays US$ 60,000, he assures. Half in advance. Half when he returns alive. "I think if I get one more trip, I'd do it, to try my luck," he says, adding that he wants to buy his mother a house. "And then I'll stop."
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Photo: CNN
He agrees to take the reporters —not on a drug run, but to show them how it's done. The routes, the tactics, the escape routes. He asks that they not use his name or show his face.
If this were his last trip, he says he would have dozens of black sacks of cocaine —worth about US$ 500,000 in Ecuador but up to US$ 5 million on the streets of the U.S., he claims— hidden under the false bottoms of "pregnant" speedboats that he and three others propel across the Pacific.
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Photo: CNN
The fisherman says he is not proud of what he does. And he knows the risks: rough seas, failing engines, criminal rivalries, and Coast Guard patrols. "If they stop us, we lose everything… we don't know if they stop us to rob us or kill us."
For Ecuador, the war is already underway: at sea, on land, in homes and on the streets. And for the fisherman who once cast lines for tuna, it is a war that pays. His next drug shipment, he says, could be his last. But the system that drew him in shows no signs of stopping.
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