BBC News has reported from the Ecuadoran city of Durán, where police say they are fighting both heavily armed gangs and corruption within public institutions as Ecuador becomes a major transit point for cocaine bound for Europe and the United States.
Police Captain Jean Carlos Bustamante told the BBC that corrupt figures exist inside the police, the state and politics, and said some are paid by gangs. He said he only trusts the hand-picked officers working directly alongside him.
The BBC accompanied Captain Bustamante during an operation in an area controlled by Los Aguilas, a local gang. Officers searched an abandoned property and found two handguns and ammunition for an assault rifle. The captain described the seizure as a success because it removed weapons from gang use, while acknowledging that criminal groups have more money and many weapons.
According to Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, around 70% of the cocaine reaching Europe and the US is routed through Ecuador. The BBC reported that drugs enter from neighbouring Colombia and Peru before being moved onwards by Ecuadoran gangs with links to Mexican cartels and Albanian mafia groups.
Ecuador’s interior ministry said more than 9,200 people were killed last year, making the country’s murder rate one of the highest in the world. President Noboa has pursued a hardline security crackdown over the past two years, though critics cited by the BBC say the arrests of major crime bosses have caused gangs to break apart and multiply.
During another police operation, officers detained three suspects after Captain Bustamante said they had been seen near a playground as local street-level dealers. Police found small paper packets of “H”, a highly addictive mixture containing small amounts of heroin, hidden in a flowerpot. One suspect was charged, while prosecutors released the other two.
Colonel Santiago Gavilanez, deputy commander of Durán police, told the BBC that officers repeatedly arrest gang members who are then released. He alleged that gangs have enough money to influence laws, judges and politicians. Another unnamed police officer told the BBC he had been offered a large bribe by text message and believed someone had disclosed details of his role to criminals.
Police in Durán told the BBC they are making progress. They said the city’s murder rate had fallen by half in the first six months of this year, and Colonel Gavilanez said officers had managed to contain the gangs, although full control would take longer.
The BBC also reported meeting a gang leader, identified by the pseudonym Jonathan, who claimed he paid four police officers between $1,500 and $2,000 a month for warnings about operations. He admitted to being involved in drug dealing and killings, and said rival gangs were trying to move into his area.
Human rights workers in Ecuador told the BBC that boys can be drawn into gang life by the age of 12 and can become hitmen by 15. Jonathan told the broadcaster he did not believe the drug trade could be eliminated, saying another gang would simply replace any group that was shut down.
The report also described the aftermath of a suspected revenge killing in Durán, where police found a man dead beside a motorbike. A witness, who did not want to be named, told the BBC that such violence had become part of daily life and said residents feared being caught by gunfire outside their homes.
