Controversial Blackwater founder Erik Prince joins police in anti-narcotics raids in Guayaquil

Erik Prince, founder of the controversial security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, joined in law enforcement operations on Saturday in Guayaquil, according to local officials.

Erik Prince

The operations saw 10 houses raided and 40 people detained, Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said.

“Since early this morning, the security block together with the American Erik Prince, a security expert, and the Ministers of Defense, Gian Carlo Loffredo and the Minister of the Interior, John Reimberg, were deployed in territory in Guayaquil, especially in the suburbs, attacking drug criminals and outlining strategies to strengthen the great actions of our law enforcement forces in the field of operations,” Ecuador’s Defense Ministry posted on X Saturday morning.

Prince also said in a video posted by Ecuador’s Defense Ministry that he was in the country “providing the law enforcement and the military the tools and the tactics to effectively combat the narco-gangs.”

The aim, Prince continued, is to “put the narcos on their back heels and make them truly afraid of being caught.”

His visit to Guayaquil comes weeks after President Daniel Noboa announced a “strategic alliance” with Prince to fight organized crime.

Ecuador’s Defense Ministry called Prince’s participation on Saturday a “historic chapter for security” for the nation. The country’s Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said Prince and his team are currently providing training and advice to Ecuador’s security forces – but added that their scope of action could be expanded. “They may not be limited to just those actions,” Loffredo said.

Prince has been in the country for a “few days,” and work is ongoing to develop a new plan to combat Ecuador’s gangs, he also said.

Noboa has increasingly called for foreign help to combat the criminal groups and has even asked U.S. President Donald Trump to designate local gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. Ecuador’s government is currently laying groundwork for U.S. forces to arrive.

Noboa’s efforts however are dependent on next week’s presidential runoff vote. He’s set off to face leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who has positioned herself as equally tough on crime but opposes the presence of any foreign force in the country and opposes any assistance from Prince.

In the same video posted by the defense ministry, Prince called on Ecuadorians to vote for Noboa, warning that otherwise Ecuador risked “looking just like Venezuela, a narco-state with massive drug processing with all the criminality and socialism and despair that comes with that.”

“I hope Ecuador chooses law and order and we are here to help to combat the gangs and to provide the tools for the government to restore law and order, peace and prosperity,” he added.
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Credit: CNN