Ecuador’s aquaculture, fishing, and agricultural sectors suffered around 900 extortion attempts in just 45 days, the Ecuadorian National Aquaculture Chamber (CNA) recently reported.
About 20 extortion alert calls a day were placed along Ecuador’s coast between 15 July and 31 August, the CNA said, but 75 percent of those cases were not handed to a prosecutor’s office. As a result, authorities did not initiate a formal complaint process, which meant no investigation was launched.
To ensure cases are properly handled, the CNA has established a difference between virtual and real extortion. In the former case, perpetrators typically use a false criminal identity, pretending to be leaders of criminal organizations, making vague threats without providing specific details of their victims, asking for money immediately without defined deadlines, and using psychological manipulation tactics to extract information. In the latter, the criminals employ precise data with details such as the victim's location or appearance, they intimidate with threats or acts of physical violence, and they define specific deadlines when demanding payment.
“Extortionists can ask for a certain amount of money - typically they ask for USD 1,000 [EUR 907] or more - to allow the business to function. If the owner doesn't pay, they will bomb your property or your business,” a source who requested to go unnamed said. “They also demand money from those who transport goods, such as on boats, to let them circulate. When the fee is paid, they put a marker on the boats to identify them and let them pass.”
The CNA has also established a security working group to respond to alerts and has called for collaborative government action to counter violence.
The chamber has been vocal about the growing waves of crime affecting Ecuador overall, including toward the country’s sizable shrimp-farming sector. Increasingly daring criminal groups have intensified their actions, including threats, extortion, and even carrying out attacks, the chamber previously said, which has led Ecuador’s shrimp industry to invest more than USD 80 million (EUR 73 million) annually in security measures, including the hiring of guards and implementing advanced video surveillance systems powered by artificial intelligence and satellite tracking technology.
To that end, CNA has worked in conjunction with the national police, the emergency response system ECU911, and the private sector to launch a video surveillance network to reinforce security on the routes used to transport aquaculture products. In the first phase of this project, four cameras were installed in the Guayas province – home to the provincial capital city of Guayaquil, which hosts many of the nation’s shrimp-farming operations – with monitoring by ECU911 and the private sector to improve the response capacity to security threats. Additionally, an agreement with ECU911 aims to allow companies in the shrimp sector to use smart radios for more agile communication in emergencies.
As precautionary measures, the chamber called on aquaculture firms to install caller ID, restrict access and keep software updated on all devices, change passwords often, avoid clicking on links of dubious origin, refrain from filling out online forms, especially those using QR codes, and to be careful with the information published on social networks.
To bolster security for other parts of the supply chain, CNA said it held a working meeting in Guayas with the Ecuador Interior Ministry’s undersecretary of security to evaluate the security protocol of the foreign trade logistics chain.
During the meeting, attendees discussed various strategies that focused on implementing stricter security requirements to prevent and combat crimes such as smuggling, illegal foreign exchange transactions, and illicit trafficking of controlled substances. The ultimate aim is to tackle illicit activities in the foreign trade logistics chain through a unified front, implementing integrated processes and rigorous security requirements to do so.
In Mexico, Minerva Pérez Castro, the president of the Cámara Nacional de las Industrias Pesquera y Acuícola (Canainpesca), was also vocal about similar extortion cases carried out by criminal groups. She was murdered on 8 July, prompting calls for justice that have so far gone unheeded.
