On the Radar: The Rise of Liquid Cocaine

Could liquid cocaine become the go-to trick for traffickers across the region?

Will “El Mayo” Zambada spend his final years in a hospital wing instead of a supermax cell like El Chapo?

Is Ecuador’s most notorious criminal family being picked off one by one?

This week’s top three organized crime stories in On the Radar.

1. Liquid Cocaine Bust in Costa Rica Points to a Spreading Trend

Earlier this month, Costa Rican authorities intercepted a fishing boat off Golfito, Puntarenas, hauling 560 kilos of cocaine dissolved into liquids and hidden in plastic barrels, along with another 95 kilos of powder cocaine. Officials called it the first at-sea seizure of its kind for the country and say they’re now checking whether clandestine labs are processing the drug somewhere on Costa Rican soil.

Dissolving cocaine into water, solvents, or everyday products strips away its telltale smell and helps the drug slip past scanners and dogs. We’ve tracked this method for years in Colombia and Bolivia, but we’re seeing more and more cases of criminal groups from around the region using liquid cocaine—among other creative methods—to traffic drugs. Earlier this week, for example, Cuban customs officials found over 10 kilos of liquid cocaine hidden inside shampoo and conditioner bottles—echoing a similar case from January. 

Check out InSight Crime’s 2025 Cocaine Seizure Round-Up for the latest on cocaine trafficking trends and methods in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

2. Brother of Choneros Leader ‘Fito’ Killed in Ecuador

The little brother of Ecuador’s most notorious gangster, Choneros leader José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito,” was shot dead in Ecuador on July 12. David Gabriel Macías Villamar was killed in a beach town in Santa Elena province. More than a dozen gunmen dressed like police disarmed security guards before opening fire. Police describe David as a regional Choneros leader with influence in Manabí province and a nearby prison.

The killing took place just three weeks after another of Fito’s brothers, Javier “Javi” Macías Villamar, was captured in Colombia, and about six weeks after other family members were convicted of laundering millions on Fito’s behalf. With Fito extradited and much of his inner circle now dead or behind bars, the Choneros face a leadership vacuum that means they will likely struggle to navigate Ecuador’s ever more chaotic and fragmented underworld.

3. US Asks for Life Sentence—and $15 Billion—for ‘El Mayo’

US federal prosecutors this week formally asked a Brooklyn court to sentence the co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, to life in prison and demanded he forfeit a staggering $15 billion in assets. The move comes as no surprise—El Mayo pleaded guilty last year and said he wouldn’t fight a life sentence last week, asking only to serve his time in a federal medical facility instead of the same supermax facility holding his old partner, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Prosecutors said they would not oppose that request. 

Where these two old partners end up doing time says something about how differently their cases played out. El Chapo fought his charges in a grueling 11-week trial, while El Mayo pleaded guilty. A judge is expected to formally hand down El Mayo’s sentence on July 20, in what will likely be the last chapter for one of Mexico’s biggest crime bosses.