Neighbor Colombia was involved in the operation in which more than 20 people in each country were arrested.

The operation, which took place in six Ecuadoran provinces and "strategic points in Colombia, dismantled a gang dedicated to the production and trafficking of arms and explosives," Lasso said on Twitter.

In recent years, Ecuador has grappled with a spike in violence and gangland killings linked to drug trafficking.

The murder rate jumped from 14 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 25 per 100,000 last year.

Ecuador has also become a jumping off point for cocaine produced in Colombia and trafficked to the United States and Europe.

Ecuador is sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the two largest producers of cocaine in the world. Its northern border with Colombia is 590 kilometers (365 miles) long.

On Monday, Colombian police said they had seized 33 weapons, including a machine gun, belonging to a dissident faction of the disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.

They are one of several armed criminal groups involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining in Colombia.

Lasso, a conservative, praised the cooperation with Colombia's left-wing authorities in the joint operation.

He said the weapons seized were "used to fuel violence in the streets, support terrorism and involve Ecuador in international arms trafficking."

Authorities in Ecuador seized around 200 tons of drugs -- mostly cocaine --- in each of the last two years, compared to less than half of that in 2020.

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