Ecuador sentences alleged FARC dissident leader to 13 years for money laundering

An Ecuadorian court sentenced Roberto Álvarez Vera, known as “Gerente,” to 13 years in prison for money laundering, along with 13 other people in the Comandos de la Frontera case. Authorities identify Álvarez as the group’s leader in Ecuador. The organization is a dissident group of Colombia’s disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The prosecution said the case involved 17 individuals and five legal entities accused of money laundering. The court sentenced Mentor A. to 10 years. It also found the companies criminally responsible and ordered fines, closure, dissolution and confiscation. The Public Prosecutor’s Office said the ruling included a fine equal to three times the amount laundered, with the precise figures to be set out in the written judgment.

According to prosecutors, those involved allegedly laundered about $397 million over 10 years through heavy-transport and cattle companies. The investigation began in 2024 after Ecuador’s Financial and Economic Analysis Unit reported unusual and unjustified transactions involving suspicious financial movements.

Based on that report, prosecutors identified a family structure that allegedly introduced illicit funds into Ecuador’s financial system. The money was reportedly linked to drug trafficking and other crimes. In a subsequent operation, police and prosecutors detained 15 people and seized cash, firearms, electronic devices and financial documents. President Daniel Noboa called it the biggest blow to criminal economies in Ecuador’s history.

Authorities said “Gerente” had been detained months earlier in the United Arab Emirates and deported to Ecuador in December. After his arrival, prosecutors formally linked him to the case, and he was held at the maximum-security Cárcel del Encuentro. The government also attributes to the Comandos de la Frontera the killing of 11 soldiers in a May 2025 ambush during an operation against illegal mining in the Amazon. Authorities designated the group as terrorists during Noboa’s war against organized crime.

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the biggest blow to criminal economies in Ecuador’s history