On the front line of Ecuador's drugs war, police fight gangs, guns and corruption

What the report says

BBC World News reports from Durán, Ecuador, where police say they are confronting entrenched drug gangs while also battling corruption inside state institutions. The report follows Police Captain Jean Carlos Bustamante and a small trusted team on raids in gang-controlled neighbourhoods, including one search of an abandoned house that uncovered two handguns and assault-rifle ammunition. Bustamante told the BBC he believes some police, political and state actors are paid by gangs, leaving him reliant on officers he personally trusts.

The BBC frames Durán and the surrounding province of Guayas as a front line in Ecuador’s rapid deterioration from a relatively peaceful country into a major drug-trafficking corridor. President Daniel Noboa is cited as saying about 70% of cocaine headed to Europe and the United States passes through Ecuador. The report says cocaine arrives from Colombia and Peru and is moved onward by local gangs linked to Mexican cartels and Albanian criminal groups, exploiting weak borders, limited security resources and the Pacific coastline.

Police described small gains, including drug arrests and a claimed halving of Durán’s murder rate in the first six months of this year. But officers also told the BBC that suspects are often released and blamed corruption in the justice system. One senior officer alleged gangs have enough money to influence judges, laws and politicians, while another officer said he had been offered a large bribe after someone revealed details of his police role.

The BBC also interviewed a local gang leader under a pseudonym, who claimed he pays four police officers for warnings before operations. His account, if accurate, underscores why Ecuador’s anti-gang campaign matters beyond local security: the country’s internal violence is tied to international cocaine markets and to public trust in police, courts and government.