The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened its first office in Ecuador, the U.S. embassy in Quito announced on Wednesday.
Local outlets reported the opening of the FBI office was formalized after the United States and Ecuador signed a memorandum of understanding in the offices of the vice presidency on Wednesday afternoon.
The signed memorandum, the outlet Primicias detailed, establishes a legal framework for developing technical capabilities and parallel investigations into transnational and terrorist organizations, and will see a focused cooperation between the FBI and Ecuadorian law enforcement in identifying and prosecuting drug trafficking, arms trafficking, money laundering, and corruption.
Ecuadorian Vice President María José Pinto and Interior Minister John Reimberg participated in the signing of the agreement alongside Lawrence Petroni, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the U.S. embassy in Quito, and FBI Regional Chief Allen Pack.
“With this memorandum and the creation of the FBI trust unit, we are improving our joint capacity to identify, dismantle, and bring to justice those who traffic drugs, launder money, smuggle weapons, and finance terrorism,” Petroni said.
Ecuavisa reported that the FBI has previously collaborated with high-profile investigations in Ecuador, such as the investigation of the assassination of anti-socialist and anti-China journalist Fernando Villavicencio in 2023 and the 2025 extradition of José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, the leader of Ecuador’s most powerful gang, the Choneros.
Petroni said during the event that FBI’s crime-fighting abilities are recognized around the world, noting past successes in Ecuador by the FBI Legate in Bogotá, Colombia, whose offices had jurisdiction in Ecuador prior to the inauguration of the new offices in Quito.
As part of the agreement, Ecuador’s National Police launched a new special unit to work together with American officials to identify and dismantle criminal organizations and financiers of terrorism, both inside and outside the country.
“We now have FBI agents permanently stationed in Ecuador working with a unit of the National Police that has been structured so that they can operate together,” Interior Minister Reimberg said.
Following the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in 2025, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has sought the help of the United States to end Ecuador’s years-long gang violence problem and fight against drug cartels and other criminal organizations operating in the nation’s territory. Noboa personally requested American help during a meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last year, where he shared his plans to collaborate with the United States and establish a security alliance between both countries.
Noboa was among the 12 heads of state invited by President Trump to form part of the “Shield of the Americas,” a security initiative led by the United States against drug cartels, malign foreign influence, and other regional threats.
“For too long, criminal organizations believed that America was their territory. That they could cross borders, move drugs, weapons, and violence without consequences. That time is over,” Noboa wrote in a a social media post after the Shield of the Americas Summit.
Last week, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) commander, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, visited Ecuador and met with Noboa as part of the ongoing security collaboration between the United States and Ecuador. During the meeting, the Ecuadorian president’s office detailed, the two countries addressed security and transnational threats, among other areas of cooperation.
Hours after the meeting, SOUTHCOM announced that it carried out a military operation alongside the Ecuadorian military against U.S.-designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador, sharing unclassified footage of the operation on social media and describing the actions as a “powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism.”
On Tuesday, the Ecuadorian Defense Ministry announced that it had carried out a joint drug bust alongside the U.S. Coast Guard at sea, resulting in the capture of 1.9 tons of presumably U.S.-bound drugs and the arrest of two Ecuadorian nationals, who will be delivered by the Coast Guard to the Ecuadorian Navy in the coming days.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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