Ecuador’s authorities seized so many drugs that they decided to use cocaine as a construction material substitute.

After huge drug confiscations in recent years, the government decided to use some of the excess cocaine in construction materials.

Drug trafficker posing as a food delivery driver is caught with 10 kilos of cocaine, Ecuador 🇪🇨 pic.twitter.com/A5Un9HsKbh

— 🔞NARCORRUPTION (@Narcorruption) June 14, 2020
The idea is simple – in a special process, the drugs are minced which results in creating fine powder which is next mixed with cement, sand, and water to create concrete platforms. The so-called encapsulation method was developed with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).


“Our focus was that we took this process (encapsulation) and we did it big, perhaps out of desperation to make good on destroying the drugs,” says Edmundo Mera, undersecretary for Drug Control at Ecuador’s Interior Ministry.


The inflow of cocaine hydrochloride blocks and coca paste seized from across Ecuador is constantly reaching the capital Quito. It is later broken down along with glass, expired medicines, and even oil waste, technicians said.


After that, the powder is mixed with other materials to produce a cement slurry for


Such a procedure is aimed at helping the police drug collection centers. Some 83 tonnes of cocaine are still to be encapsulated.