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

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

In the Ecuadoran city of Durán, riddled with drugs and rival gangs, Police Captain Jean Carlos Bustamante knows exactly what he is up against – not just the criminals who kill and sometimes dismember their rivals, but also the enemy within.

"We have many, many bad people inside our unit, inside the state, inside politics," he says. "We have many, many guys that are corrupt. They are in the pay of the gangs."

The only police officers he can trust, he says, are the ones right beside him - members of his hand-picked team. At 34, Captain Bustamante is the oldest among them and moves like the special forces officer he used to be.

With the sun setting, he leads his team into a hardscrabble neighbourhood where windows are sealed off behind metal grills, and lips are sealed by fear. This is the heart of gangland, controlled by a group called Los Aguilas (Spanish for The Eagles).

I ask what happens if local people speak out against the gangs. "They kill them," the captain replies. "So that's why they never say nothing."

Confronting gang members at the heart of Ecuador's drug battle

He's heading for an abandoned house where he believes weapons have been hidden (gunmen don't keep their guns at home). He and his team line up, hugging the wall, heavily armed, and tightly packed. A battering ram gets them through the door.

They find two handguns – one rusty but the other ready to be fired - and ammunition for an assault rifle.

The captain says he's happy with the result. "The first reason is because we are safe," he says. "The second is that there are two guns less for the gangs."

But this is a small victory, in a war of attrition. He admits the gangs have "many weapons and much more money than the state".

He knows the risks only too well – having lost three close friends fighting the gangs. He has also lost his fear he says, "years ago", but his parents have not.

"My Mum says 'be careful, maybe you can die there'," he tells me. "My Dad calls all the time and asks 'my son, are you good? Tell me that you are good.'"

A line can be traced - in dollars and in broken lives - from the back streets of Durán to the hotspots of London, and other capital cities. Around 70% of the cocaine reaching Europe and the US is funnelled out of Ecuador, according to the country's president, Daniel Noboa.

The drug pours in 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 – help smuggl