Ecuador Police Captain Jean Carlos Bustamante Leads Fight Against Drug Gangs

In the city of Durán, Ecuador, police commander Jean Carlos Bustamante heads a hand‑picked unit that is battling heavily armed drug gangs linked to Mexican cartels and Albanian mafias. During a recent raid his team entered an abandoned house, discovering two handguns and ammunition for an assault rifle, which they seized as a small but symbolic victory.

Bustamante says corruption undermines the effort, noting that some officials and politicians are on gang payrolls. President Daniel Noboa says about 70 % of the cocaine destined for Europe and the United States transits Ecuador, arriving from neighboring Colombia and Peru. While the homicide rate in Durán fell in the first half of the year, the city still experiences shootings, revenge attacks and the recruitment of minors as low‑level hitmen. The police claim progress but acknowledge that gangs possess far more money and weapons than the state, and that arrests often do not hold up in court.

The crackdown is part of a broader national strategy to curb Ecuador’s growing role as a cocaine transit hub, a shift that has transformed the once‑peaceful country into a focal point of the international drug trade.