Cocaine in the Banana Boxes: Inside the Noboa Trading Smuggling Scandal Exposed by OCCRP | Your Compliance Officers Playbook

In this Compliance Officers Playbook podcast episode, we unpack a gripping cross-border investigation from OCCRP and KRIK that reveals how Balkan organised crime networks allegedly used banana shipments from Noboa Trading Co.—the family business of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa—to smuggle massive quantities of cocaine into Europe.Drawing on confidential Croatian prosecution files and decrypted Sky ECC messages, the exposé shows traffickers bragging about their privileged access to the company’s export routes. Journalists matched these chats to three verified Noboa Trading shipments that collectively hid 535 kilograms of cocaine, representing millions in street value. Through meticulous cross-referencing, investigators identified key players, including Nikola Đorđević, who handled container loading in Ecuador, all under the direction of convicted drug lord Darko Šarić.We explore the political and operational fallout: how these revelations clash with President Noboa’s strong public stance against “narco-terrorists,” his insistence that his family business was unaware of the scheme, and what the findings expose about systemic security failures at Ecuador’s principal port. Tune in for a deep dive into how global supply chains, political influence, and organised crime intersect in this extraordinary case.

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