A once-peaceful country that does not produce the drug is now a war zone as gangs vie for control to meet European demand
The submerged section of the ‘iceberg’ shows a man being searched by police, labelled packets of cocaine from a seizure and a customs official searching a box of bananas for hidden drugs.sign on the doorway said “For rent” and the house’s lights were out. But the assault team were convinced a group of armed gang members lurked inside and they were determined to smoke them out.
A third suspect was bundled to the living-room floor as the masked squad demolished the house’s interior in search of hidden guns and drugs. “Where’s the rifle?” one soldier bellowed as a half-naked prisoner was thrashed with a pole, leaving red streaks across his back.Minutes later, the weapon was found stashed inside a child’s ransacked bedroom, along with a pistol and another US-made Mac-10 submachine gun. The girl sat at the kitchen table with her mother, fiddling anxiously with a toy.
“If someone is consuming one gram of cocaine aware that it doesn’t end up on the market just like that. There’s a story behind it – which is not a very nice story. In fact, it might even be quite a bloody story.”of cocaine seized last year by authorities in Latin America and the Caribbean, 84% was bound for Europe and about 37% was recovered in Ecuador.
Glaeldys González, an International Crisis Group expert, says Guayaquil’s highly strategic location – and longstanding trade ties with Europe – have placed it and the surrounding province of Guayas in the eye of Ecuador’s storm.
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