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Reuters
Reuters
Environment
By Yury Garcia and Alexandra Valencia

Ecuador turns surfeit of seized cocaine into concrete

Cocaine Ecuador United Nations
FILE PHOTO: Workers carry a mix of seized cocaine and coca paste with industrial waste to produce cement slurry to be used in a construction, at a waste treatment plant at an undisclosed location, in Ecuador February 10, 2023. REUTERS/Karen Toro

Huge quantities of seized drugs in Ecuador are presenting the Andean country with an unlikely new construction material: cocaine.

Under President Guillermo Lasso, a conservative ex-banker, Ecuador has ramped up efforts to fight gangs who use the country as a transit point for shipping cocaine to the United States and Europe.

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