Delivery Rider Sentenced to 40 Months in Prison for Drug Trafficking in Cuenca

A delivery rider in Cuenca has been sentenced to 40 months in prison after admitting responsibility for drug trafficking during an abbreviated court proceeding.

The case began with intelligence work by Azuay’s anti-drug investigations unit. Officers received information about a package containing controlled substances that had been sent from Guayaquil to Cuenca. The package was expected to be collected by a person operating as a home-delivery worker.

On May 12, 2026, investigators watched the area and identified a suspect collecting the shipment. They followed and stopped him at the intersection of Unidad Nacional Avenue and Cuba while he was riding a motorcycle and wearing delivery clothing.

Police found green plant material inside his insulated delivery bag and in a pocket of his jacket. Preliminary testing and technical weighing identified a total of 255 grams of marijuana. The case file also included the arresting officer’s report, chain-of-custody records, a visual inspection of the arrest site and a chemical expert report.

Ecuador’s Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code sets a prison term of five to seven years for medium-scale drug trafficking under Article 220. The court set the final sentence at 40 months after Jean Carlos P. formally accepted the charges.