First it was the gangs, now it's drug traffickers’ turn

The government of El Salvador modified its strategy to combat drug trafficking and mobilised its resources towards the marine area where most drugs pass northwards. 2024 was a year of major seizures and 2025 began with major blows.

Luis Beatón

El Salvador began 2025 with a major blow to drug trafficking in Pacific Ocean waters, according to President Nayib Bukele, who announced the seizure of 4.3 tonnes of cocaine in one day.

The Salvadoran Navy’s action in distant waters of the Pacific Ocean resulted in the arrest of four vessels with a drug shipment valued at more than $100 million, which were being transported by Ecuadorian and Colombian drug traffickers. These operations consolidate the country as a bastion in the fight against drug trafficking, especially that which moves from South America to the world’s main market, the United States.

For years, the northern nation has had the highest demand for different types of drugs and, for example, figures from 2023 presented in the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, a nation that is often a forced transit country, claimed that it was a market worth 240 billion dollars.

The fight against drug trafficking should be a multilateral commitment, so there is no room for threats against countries such as those made on that occasion by US legislators or officials towards its closest neighbour to the south, according to US authorities.

In the 1980s, Bolivia, for example, was threatened because of its large production of coca leaf, a centuries-old tradition of the indigenous population, but which was then the main raw material for cocaine production.

Andean diplomats pointed out at that time that if market demand was eliminated, the primary producers of the raw material would maintain their production but only for medicinal or food purposes.

Experts still believe that the elimination of demand in the markets is essential to make progress on this issue, especially when, for example, drugs such as cocaine were often ‘a luxury’ at ‘high society’ parties in the United States.

Anti-drug policy

In recent years, El Salvador faced the spiralling violence of the maras, or gangs, which came to control life in the country; the gang members were ‘owners of villages and haciendas (ranches)’ and in some ways became linked to drug trafficking.

According to InSight Crime, in 2020 El Salvador militarised part of its border with Honduras, allegedly to combat drug trafficking, but according to credible sources, this action was more aimed at eliminating the passage of migrants to the northern country. According to the report, this measure apparently ignored the real points of entry of cocaine into the country.

In fact, a good part of the 23 tons of cocaine seized between 2017 and part of 2020 in El Salvador were seized at sea or, to a lesser extent, on land routes far from the area intervened by the government, which never presented evidence of the results.

A recent report from the Salvadoran government shows tangible results evidently achieved with a change in policy by shifting combat to other areas.

All indications are that the drug cartels opted to move their drugs across distant waters of the Pacific Ocean with semi-submersible vessels and ships equipped with powerful engines, which the Salvadoran government successfully countered in 2024.

The good results

A report released at the beginning of 2025 by Bukele’s security cabinet noted that the previous year was the ‘most successful in the fight against drug trafficking’.

In those 12 months, authorities seized 17,224 kilos of drugs (17.224 tonnes), valued at US$ 422,771,124, mainly cocaine, marijuana, crack, heroin, ecstasy and methamphetamine.

This result accompanied the government’s achievement in reducing gang violence and reaching a homicide rate of 1.9 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Drug trafficking is a crime that for years was one of the sources of funding and control for gangs and organised crime groups, and if they still exist after the arrest of more than 84,000 of their members, they have lost their financial resources.

We have closed the year as the most efficient in the fight against drug trafficking, said Vice Admiral René Merino, El Salvador’s Minister of Defence, during the presentation of the country’s achievements. The jump was substantial, as in 2023, the security authorities seized only 3.6 tons of drugs. A very low figure compared to 2022, when 13 tons valued at 303.7 million were seized, while in 2021 the accumulated figure was 11.8 tons valued at 275 million. Of the 17.2 tons of drugs seized in 2024, a total of 16.7 tons was cocaine seized at sea, representing 420 million 926 thousand dollars. The most distant operation took place on 23 December, 1,050 nautical miles off the Salvadoran coast.

Reports from Salvadoran prosecutors show that the main people caught in drug trafficking are Colombians, Ecuadorians, Guatemalans and Mexicans.

In the case of Ecuadorians, according to reports, Ecuadorian fishermen are forced to accept the transfer of drugs to their destination, but if they refuse, they and their relatives are executed by cartel hitmen.