Quito, June 28 (PL-RHC), -- Ecuador managed to destroy 4 million marijuana and some two million poppy plants between 2004-2013; therefore the United Nations declared the country free from illegal drug crops, according to a report presented in Quito.

A report drafted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said illegal crops in Equador are limited and they almost don't proliferate, mainly due to national legislation banning crops with active principles linked to narcotics, the operations carried out by the Armed Forces and the National Police, and the loss of the coca habit by the population.

Coordinator of the UNODC illegal crop monitoring project in Ecuador, Lorenzo Vallejos, highlighted that a sign of the limited presence of illegal crops in the country is that the count is not made by the number of hectares, as in other territories, but by the number of plants.

In 2006, Ecuador joined the UNODC Global Illegal Crop Monitoring Program, which detects, measures and assesses the extension of illegal crops in countries.