Boscán & La MoniInvestigations
The investigations

Boscán & La Moni, ten years investigating power

Four governments across the political spectrum. Each investigation is a different object on the table: a folder, a receipt, a phone, a sign-in sheet. Pick one up.

Investigation case files

Documents, evidence and connections. Each case is a different object: open it and see how it was proven.

37 case files · 001–037
202611 case files
The fall of the narco-mayor

The fall of the narco-mayor

What Leonardo Toledo left behind in case he was killed

Lawyer Leonardo Toledo left a video of Naranjal's mayor admitting others run his town. He was killed before it aired.

ADN withdrew its support the same day; no known prosecutorial investigationCase 001Read the full case
The military school that demanded silence

The military school that demanded silence

A chokehold, threats using his ID card and a principal who asked for silence

A sergeant restrained a 17-year-old at a military school in Portoviejo and the rector asked for silence. After publication, he lost his post.

Ochoa and the principal out; National Assembly, Education and Defense investigatingCase 002Read the full case
Nathaly Mafla's last walk

Nathaly Mafla's last walk

An hour and twenty minutes to a ravine in La Vicentina, and a case file full of contradictions

A student was found dead in a Quito ravine. Retracing her walk exposed a missing bag and 48 hours with no police report.

Exposed the missing bag and the phone handled outside the chain of custodyCase 003Read the full case
Progen's hidden evidence

Progen's hidden evidence

The Progen case evidence the prosecutor locked in a drawer

CELEC engineers recorded their bosses over the Progen generators. Prosecutors charged them and left the evidence out of the case file.

The evidence was not in the case file; the prosecutor on the case fellCase 004Read the full case
Connie Garcés and Carlos Kada

Connie Garcés and Carlos Kada

The model, the number two of Los Lagartos and the cartel's police officers

A bomb at a TV host's shop exposed Los Lagartos: her partner was alias Marino's second-in-command.

Investigation ongoingCase 005Read the full case
Srdán, the Serbian drug trafficker

Srdán, the Serbian drug trafficker

The Serbian who named names: the cooperation agreement the Attorney General's Office keeps under seal

The Serbian trafficker whose case toppled Mario Godoy signed a plea deal naming politicians and campaign cash.

Revealed the cooperation agreement and the $42,000 paid to Godoy's law firmCase 006Read the full case
Narcomilicos: the sailors who stole the drugs

Narcomilicos: the sailors who stole the drugs

The seizure that was a robbery

Navy sailors staged a seizure to steal a cartel's drugs: five sacks in the report, eighteen in the water.

The Navy admitted the staged operation; the Attorney General's Office is investigatingCase 007Read the full case
The Albanian mafia in soccer

The Albanian mafia in soccer

How money is laundered on Ecuador's soccer fields

A second-division club ran two payrolls, one banked and one in cash. Its president was convicted of laundering for Gjika.

No state oversight of the second divisionCase 008Read the full case
The mayor of Playas and the narco's checks

The mayor of Playas and the narco's checks

What we reported in January; on October 30 they raided his home

The mayor of Playas gave millions in contracts to his partner's family; her stepfather was a partner of alias Boris. In October his home was raided.

Mayor's home raided on October 30, 2026, in Operation Marea, over alleged embezzlementCase 009Read the full case
Narco babies

Narco babies

Micaela Morales, Wendy Landa, Bryan Soria and the money of Marino's inner circle

Cards, trips and apartments in alias Marino's circle that match no declared income.

Investigation ongoingCase 010Read the full case
The Willy recordings

The Willy recordings

The leader of Los Tiguerones explains how he made deals with the government and the police

The Tiguerones gang leader describes on a call how he made deals with the previous government and the police.

Unreleased recordings of the Los Tiguerones boss; he remains free in EuropeCase 011Read the full case
20255 case files
The fall of Mario Godoy

The fall of Mario Godoy

The recordings that proved the Judiciary Council was applying pressure in favor of drug trafficking

Recordings of the judiciary council asking a judge to favor a Serbian trafficker. The Assembly removed Godoy with 148 votes.

Godoy censured and removed by the National Assembly; Gaibor out of the Judiciary CouncilCase 012Read the full case
The newborns of the Hospital Universitario

The newborns of the Hospital Universitario

Twelve deaths acknowledged, eighteen reported and a bacterium in the neonatal ward

Boscán reported 18 newborn deaths at a Guayaquil hospital. The next day the Ministry acknowledged 12.

Manager fired, coordinator removed and the Attorney General's Office investigatingCase 013Read the full case
The Briones dynasty

The Briones dynasty

Six dead, a port and the ship nobody seizes

Leo Briones came to control the port of Manta. His family was killed within six months and no one has been charged.

Money laundering investigations against the family moved forwardCase 014Read the full case
The fall of Fito

The fall of Fito

The bunker, the letter, the video call and the plane to Brooklyn

Alias Fito's recapture, told with what the government took a week to admit: talks, a video call and a letter.

Reimberg admitted the video call with Fito he had deniedCase 015Read the full case
The cardboard vests

The cardboard vests

The Loffredo purchase the Attorney General's Office ended up investigating

Vests and helmets for the armed forces that, by the Army's own account, do not protect. The supplier was blacklisted.

Prosecutorial investigation openedCase 016Read the full case
20242 case files
20231 case file
20225 case files
20213 case files
20203 case files
20192 case files
20183 case files
20171 case file
20161 case file

Each yellow note says what the investigation led to.

What happened next

What each investigation led to

Removals, censures, convictions, prosecutorial investigations, changes in the law. Pick an outcome to browse the archive.

  1. 2026

    The fall of the narco-mayor

    Leonardo Toledo left Boscán & La Moni four videos and two audio recordings to open if he was killed. He was ambushed on October 27, 2026. In them, the mayor of Naranjal, Juan Carlos Rivera, admits that he is not the one in charge of his municipality and that his officials have guns put to their heads. Five hours after the broadcast, ADN withdrew its support for him.

    ADN withdrew its support the same day; no known prosecutorial investigation
  2. 2026

    The military school that demanded silence

    A sergeant at the Miguel Iturralde Military School in Portoviejo put a 17-year-old student in a chokehold and forced him into the mud. When the boy's mother filed a complaint, the principal asked her to keep quiet, and death threats arrived along with a copy of an ID card that only the school had. After publication, Ochoa and the principal left their posts, and the National Assembly and two ministries opened investigations.

    Ochoa and the principal out; National Assembly, Education and Defense investigating
  3. 2026

    Nathaly Mafla's last walk

    A 20-year-old student left the National Polytechnic School alone, walked for more than an hour on a swelling ankle and was found five days later in a ravine in La Vicentina. Boscán & La Moni reconstructed her route and exposed the bag that was not in the ravine, the phone opened without a chain of custody and the 48 hours that passed without a missing-person report.

    Exposed the missing bag and the phone handled outside the chain of custody
  4. 2026

    Progen's hidden evidence

    Three CELEC technicians recorded a proof-of-life test in Houston and secretly recorded their bosses while inspecting Progen's generators. They handed everything to the Attorney General's Office, which charged them and left the evidence out of the case file until Boscán & La Moni published it.

    The evidence was not in the case file; the prosecutor on the case fell
  5. 2026

    Connie Garcés and Carlos Kada

    A bomb at a television host's business opened the door to the Los Lagartos organization: Connie Garcés, a model and Guayaquil TV personality, was the partner of Pedro Sánchez, the number two to alias Marino. Then came the names behind Marino's murder and the photos of the police officers who reported to a drug trafficker.

    Investigation ongoing
  6. 2026

    Srdán, the Serbian drug trafficker

    The life of the Serbian drug trafficker whose case brought down Mario Godoy: 513 kilos in 2014, free in 2018, translator for a hitman in Vienna and back in prison over his Sky chats. Cornered, he signed a cooperation agreement naming politicians and cash for campaigns.

    Revealed the cooperation agreement and the $42,000 paid to Godoy's law firm
  7. 2026

    Narcomilicos: the sailors who stole the drugs

    Sailors who staged a seizure to steal drugs from a cartel and resell them: five sacks in the official report, eighteen in the water. The Navy admitted the staging and sought the maximum penalty against the commander who led it.

    The Navy admitted the staged operation; the Attorney General's Office is investigating
  8. 2026

    The Albanian mafia in soccer

    Hundreds of accounting files from a second-division club show two payrolls: one through the bank at 460 dollars and a real one of 2,500, paid in cash. Its president is Héctor Pesantes, convicted of laundering money for the Gjika network.

    No state oversight of the second division
  9. 2026

    The mayor of Playas and the narco's checks

    In January, pulling the Mocolí thread, Boscán and La Moni showed that the mayor of Playas, Gabriel Balladares, had awarded millions in contracts to his partner's family, and that her stepfather was a business partner of alias Boris, the drug czar of Los Choneros, who was caught holding checks from that same company. On October 30, 2026, prosecutors raided the mayor's home.

    Mayor's home raided on October 30, 2026, in Operation Marea, over alleged embezzlement
  10. 2026

    Narco babies

    The finances of the young people linked to the circle of alias Marino, the Los Lagartos leader murdered in Mocolí: Micaela Morales, Wendy Landa, Bryan Soria and Andrés Vélez. Cards, trips, handbags and apartments that match no declared income, according to data from the UAFE, the SRI and the banks.

    Investigation ongoing
  11. 2026

    The Willy recordings

    The alleged leader of Los Tiguerones, free in Spain after a failed extradition, describes in a phone call deals with the previous government to bring down weekend killings, and a police force he offers to help control the streets. He says Commander Tannya Varela got along well with Fito and with Junior Roldán.

    Unreleased recordings of the Los Tiguerones boss; he remains free in Europe
  12. 2025

    The fall of Mario Godoy

    The recordings in which the right-hand man of the president of the Judiciary Council asks an anti-corruption judge to pay "attention to the defense" of a Serbian drug trafficker who had been a client of Godoy's wife. Sixty-four days later, the National Assembly censured and removed him, 148 votes to none.

    Godoy censured and removed by the National Assembly; Gaibor out of the Judiciary Council
  13. 2025

    The newborns of the Hospital Universitario

    Andersson Boscán reported that 18 newborns had died at the Hospital Universitario in Guayaquil with reused cannulas. The hospital denied it, and a day later the ministry acknowledged 12 deaths, two from the KPC bacterium. The manager was fired, the regional coordinator removed, and the Attorney General's Office and the National Assembly opened investigations.

    Manager fired, coordinator removed and the Attorney General's Office investigating
  14. 2025

    The Briones dynasty

    Leo Briones went from hauling cocaine with his own hands to controlling the port of Manta with police officers, soldiers and prosecutors on his payroll, until men in military uniforms ambushed him and his wife in July 2025. Within six months his brother, his 16-year-old son and his business partner were killed. No one has been charged, and the ship over which the boy was lured is still registered to the same company.

    Money laundering investigations against the family moved forward
  15. 2025

    The fall of Fito

    The recapture of alias Fito in a bunker in Monterrey, between Manta and Montecristi, told with what the government took a week to admit: three rejected negotiation channels, a twenty-minute video call with the interior minister and a letter to Colombia's ambassador. Exclusive photos of the house, the hidden stash with four Rolex watches, the plane to Brooklyn, the hitman who called from Mexico and the brothers who fell in 2026.

    Reimberg admitted the video call with Fito he had denied
  16. 2025

    The cardboard vests

    The vests and helmets bought for the Armed Forces that, according to the Army's own document, offer no protection. The supplier had been declared in breach by the state.

    Prosecutorial investigation opened
  17. 2024

    FV's secret files

    9,000 chats and 68 gigabytes verified over a month: the prosecutor, the operator who paid every month, the judges and the threats.

    The files became part of the Attorney General's Office investigation
  18. 2024

    The Albanian mafia's companies

    71 of Dritan Gjika's companies were still active a year and seven months after El Gran Padrino: no one was prosecuting them or freezing their assets. A raid with advance warning, a liquidator who sold to his daughter and an Attorney General's Office that did nothing.

    Gjika arrested in Abu Dhabi and a prosecutorial investigation opened
  19. 2023

    El Gran Padrino

    The president's brother-in-law, an operator tied to the Albanian mafia and state companies divided up as spoils. For the first time in nearly a century, a president faced an impeachment trial.

    Impeachment trial and "muerte cruzada" (mutual dissolution)
  20. 2022

    The minister who sold jobs

    A 150,000-dollar threat, the recording of the Petroecuador manager and a minister who resigned within five days. Acquitted in 2026.

    Charged and indicted; acquitted in 2026 though the recordings were authenticated
  21. 2022

    Ítalo Cedeño: the manager's wife

    The general manager of Petroecuador sat down on Café La Posta to answer for the recordings, chats and intelligence report showing his wife recommending candidates and steering contracts. On air, he acknowledged that she had influence over his job and that he had confessed it to Lasso in a private meeting. That night, Lasso asked the board to dismiss him, and he resigned the next day.

    Lasso asked for his dismissal that night; he resigned on August 2, 2022
  22. 2022

    The Danubio case: customs for sale

    Three million for the post that decides which container gets opened. The case file, Pozo's hand and the hearing before the National Assembly.

    Eight sent to trial; hearing pending
  23. 2022

    Orders from the Judiciary Council

    A witness recorded Judiciary Council members Juan José Morillo and Maribel Barreno in the office of the president of the Pichincha Provincial Court, asking him, in President Lasso's name, to support Guadalupe Llori's case. La Posta published it on June 15, 2022. Fifteen months later, the Attorney General's Office brought influence-peddling charges and a judge ordered pretrial detention for Barreno.

    Council members charged; pretrial detention for Maribel Barreno
  24. 2022

    Ukraine

    Reporting from Ukrainian territory during the Russian invasion.

    Special war coverage
  25. 2021

    The godmother and the narco-generals

    Generals Ponce and Vargas were heard on tape ordering the closure of León de Troya, the investigation that placed the president's brother-in-law alongside the Albanian mafia, and Commander Tannya Varela said Lasso had already spoken with his brother-in-law. The drug traffickers called her the godmother. Four years after entering Carondelet without being logged, she was arrested along with the police officers who had investigated.

    Two generals discharged within 24 hours; Varela arrested in December 2025
  26. 2021

    Paz o Plomo

    Four documentaries from inside the prisons and gang territories. The series that preceded the peace talks between the state, the Church and armed groups, and the first death threats.

    Revealed the names and the map of the gangs
  27. 2021

    VIP vaccinations

    The list of people who jumped the COVID vaccine line in January 2021 thanks to their political connections. The health minister resigned and left the country.

    Resignation and censure of Minister Zevallos
  28. 2020

    Hospitals handed out

    Public hospitals handed to assembly members in exchange for votes at the height of the pandemic. The government minister was censured and removed with 104 votes.

    Fall and censure of Minister Romo
  29. 2020

    Arroz Moreno

    Money from state companies that paid for the Yes campaign in the 2018 referendum. The Oversight Committee opened an investigation based on the report.

    Investigation in the National Assembly and the Attorney General's Office
  30. 2020

    Morales's silver bullet

    Face masks at 6.71, shell companies with the same accountant, a family offshore and a prefect who died 19 days after the raid.

    Prefect charged; the case was extinguished by his death
  31. 2019

    Bribery Division: Odebrecht's secret files

    More than 13,000 documents from Odebrecht's bribery department, handed over in Quito and reported with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 18 media outlets across the Americas.

    Cases against mayors and politicians; convictions across the region
  32. 2019

    Ministry of Death

    Four reports and an interview with the source about the HIV tests and the Health Ministry's purchases. Minister Verónica Espinosa was censured by the National Assembly.

    Censure and removal of the minister
  33. 2018

    Beyond one or a few lives

    La Posta published 45 seconds recorded inside a meeting of the Public and State Security Council during the kidnapping of three El Comercio journalists: Lenín Moreno said a state's sovereignty went beyond one or a few lives, while the families were being told about a prisoner exchange. The full declassification he promised on April 13, 2018, never came; in 2025 he admitted that military and police officials blocked it.

    Cast doubt on the president's word; no declassification
  34. 2018

    Normita, the collector

    The recording in which an assembly member explains how to collect ten percent of her advisers' salaries. Removal from office and conviction.

    Removal from office and conviction
  35. 2018

    ConspiraIn

    Agents from the presidency's internal security handed La Posta the inner workings of Rommy Vallejo's Senain: doctored classified expenses, a troll center, wiretaps with seven interceptors that disappeared, phishing against opponents and Yasunidos, shock groups paid by the day and two agents planted in Lenín Moreno's security detail. Moreno removed the infiltrator; the rest of the scheme went unpunished.

    Named the Senain's leadership; the infiltrator was removed
  36. 2017

    Caminosca

    The consulting firm that paid bribes to Ecuadorian officials through two companies set up by Mossack Fonseca. The lead that took the Attorney General's Office to the vice president's inner circle.

    Prosecutorial investigation into a sitting vice president; no verdict yet
  37. 2016

    La Mancha Dorada

    Seven installments on the banned mercury that was still poisoning rivers, air, milk and blood in the southern mining region. The day after the first installment, the National Assembly unanimously ratified the Minamata Convention.

    Mercury banned; Ecuador ratified Minamata
The names

The same names, different schemes

Tap a person to pull the thread to their case files. Tap a case file to open it.

Write to us

Want us to investigate something?

Almost everything on this table started with someone who decided to tell what they knew. Write to either of us on WhatsApp. We read everything.

01

What helps

Documents, contracts, rulings, official letters, audio, video, photos, chats, payment records. Anything that goes with your account and backs it up. With that, we can start working from day one.

02

What isn't enough

A loose tip, however good it sounds, can't be published. Without something to back it up it stays gossip, and we get a lot of that. If you have the paper, even a photo of the paper, send it.

03

What we do with it

We verify before we publish, and we never say who gave it to us. In these ten years, we have never exposed a single source. If the case doesn't hold up, we'll tell you straight.

Andersson's WhatsApp Mónica's WhatsApp

If the material is sensitive, say so in your first message and we'll arrange a safe way to send it.

About us

Two journalists, one method

Ten years and four governments of different stripes. The same rule for all of them: nothing gets published without the document to back it up, and every case is followed to its outcome, no matter who wins.

Andersson Boscán Andersson Boscán

The ground first

Almost everything on this table started with a phone call. The people who come to him are the ones who are fed up: the agents who handed over the Senain's organizational chart, the CELEC technicians who recorded their bosses in a Houston hotel, the witness who recorded Judiciary Council members in a judge's office, the gang leader who talked by phone from Spain. His first trade was print journalism: at Diario Expreso he published La Mancha Dorada, seven installments on the mercury poisoning the rivers of the south, and Caminosca, the private arbitration in the United States in which the sitting vice president appeared under an alias, Vidrio.

In 2018 he co-founded La Posta and ran it until December 2025. That period produced the VIP vaccinations story, which cost the health minister his job, Bribery Division with the ICIJ consortium, and El Gran Padrino: seven journalists, six months and thirty-four installments on how President Lasso's brother-in-law divided up state companies. For the first time in nearly a century, an Ecuadorian president faced an impeachment trial for corruption, and he dissolved the National Assembly to avoid the vote.

He left the country in 2023, after threats documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists. He keeps publishing from exile, co-founded the Red de Periodistas Libres (Free Journalists Network) and today hosts Boscán & La Moni.

  • King of Spain Award for Narrative Journalism 2024
  • Gabo Award finalist 2023
  • Free Press Awards finalist 2023, Most Resilient Journalist
  • IAPA honorable mention 2023
  • Fetisov finalist 2023
  • EPPY Award 2019
  • Honorable mention, WJP Anthony Lewis Prize 2025
  • All his awards
Mónica Velásquez Mónica Velásquez

The evidence first

Whatever comes in has to be provable. She builds the case file: she cross-checks contracts, business registries, payrolls, minutes and chats until the story stands on its own. In Nathaly Mafla's last walk, she reconstructed the student's route hour by hour using neighborhood cameras, and what got published was not a suspicion but a list: the bag that was not in the ravine, the phone examined outside the chain of custody and the forty-eight hours that passed without a missing-person report.

With Andersson she co-authored Bribery Division, El Gran Padrino and the files from Fernando Villavicencio's phone, nine thousand chats that had to be verified contact by contact before a single line was published. She also reports from where things happen: she went into the cellblocks of the Penitenciaría for Paz o plomo, covered the Russian invasion from Ukraine in its first weeks and walked the port of Manta on the trail of the Briones family.

In 2024 the International Women's Media Foundation gave her the Courage in Journalism Award for continuing to publish under threat and from exile. Today she hosts Boscán & La Moni and leads EUREKA, her project on entrepreneurship and business.

  • IWMF Courage in Journalism Award 2024
  • King of Spain Award for Narrative Journalism 2024
  • Gabo Award finalist 2023
  • IAPA honorable mention 2023
  • Fetisov finalist 2023
  • IPYS Javier Valdez mention 2023
  • EPPY Award 2019
  • All her awards