The BBC’s Orla Guerin goes on patrol with Ecuador’s police, who are grappling with a huge surge in drug crime.
Drugs have been pouring into Ecuador from neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the two biggest producers in the world. Powerful home-grown gangs, with links to Mexican cartels and Albanian mafia groups, are then helping to smuggle the cocaine onwards.
Last year, Ecuador’s murder rate was one of the highest in the world, with more than 9,200 people killed, according to the country’s interior ministry.