Monitoring the world’s main cocaine path to Europe

“The Albanian mafia would name me and say: ‘We wish to ship 500kg of medicine.’ If you happen to do not settle for, they kill you.”

César (not his actual identify) is a member of the Latin Kings, a felony drug gang in Ecuador. He was recruited by a corrupt counternarcotics police officer to work for the Albanian mafia, considered one of Europe’s most prolific cocaine trafficking networks.

The Albanian mafia has expanded its presence in Ecuador in recent times, drawn by key trafficking routes by way of the nation, and it now controls a lot of the cocaine movement from South America to Europe.

Regardless of Ecuador not producing the drug, 70% of the world’s cocaine now flows by way of its ports, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa says.

It’s smuggled into the nation from neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the world’s two largest producers of cocaine.

Police say they seized a file quantity of illicit medication final yr, the vast majority of it cocaine, and that this means complete exports are on the rise.

The results are lethal: January 2025 noticed 781 murders, making it the deadliest month in recent times. Lots of them had been associated to the unlawful drug commerce.

We spoke to individuals within the provide chain to grasp why this disaster is worsening – and the way rising European cocaine consumption is fuelling it.

César, 36, first began working with cartels when he was 14 years outdated, citing poor job alternatives as one issue.

“The Albanians wanted somebody to resolve issues,” he explains. “I knew the port guards, the transport drivers, the CCTV digital camera supervisors.”

He bribes them to assist smuggle medication into Ecuador’s ports or to show a blind eye – and the occasional digital camera.

After cocaine arrives in Ecuador from Colombia or Peru it’s stashed in warehouses till his Albanian employers develop into conscious of a transport container that will probably be leaving one of many ports for Europe.

Gangs use three major strategies to smuggle cocaine into shipments: hiding medication in cargo earlier than it reaches the port, breaking into containers on the port, or attaching medication to ships at sea.

Generally César has made as much as $3,000 (£2,235) for one job, however the incentive isn’t just cash: “If you happen to do not do a job the Albanians ask for, they will kill you.”

César says he feels some remorse over his function within the medication commerce, notably what he calls the “collateral victims”.

However he believes that the fault lies with the buyer nations. “If consumption retains rising, so will trafficking. It is going to be unstoppable,” he says, including: “In the event that they struggle it there, it is going to finish right here.”

Atypical employees, not simply gang members, get caught on this provide chain.

Juan, not his actual identify, is a truck driver. In the future he picked up a tuna cargo to take to the port. He says that one thing appeared off.

“The primary alarm bell was once we went to the warehouse and it solely had the cargo, nothing else. It was a rented warehouse, no firm identify,” he remembers.

“Two months later, I noticed on the information that the containers had been seized in Amsterdam, full of medicine. We by no means knew.”

Some drivers unknowingly transport medication; others are coerced – in the event that they refuse, they’re killed.

European gangs are drawn to Ecuador for its location but additionally its authorized exports, which give a handy approach to cover illicit cargo.

“Banana exports make up 66% of containers that depart Ecuador, 29.81% go to the European Union, the place drug consumption is rising,” explains banana business consultant José Antonio Hidalgo.

Some gangs have even arrange pretend fruit import or export corporations in Europe and Ecuador as a entrance for illicit actions.

“These European traffickers pose as businessmen,” says “José” (not his actual identify), a prosecutor who targets organised crime teams and who spoke anonymously attributable to threats he has acquired.

One infamous instance is Dritan Gjika, accused of being one of the highly effective Albanian mafia leaders in Ecuador.

Prosecutors say he had stakes in fruit export corporations in Ecuador, and import corporations in Europe, which he used to site visitors cocaine. He stays on the run, however a lot of his accomplices confronted convictions after a multinational police operation.

Lawyer Monica Luzárraga defended considered one of his associates and now speaks candidly about her data of how these networks function.

“In these years, banana exports to Albania boomed,” she says.

She seems pissed off that authorities didn’t put two and two collectively sooner that felony teams had been utilizing this as a entrance: “The complete economic system right here is stagnant. But one merchandise that has elevated in exports is bananas. So, two plus two equals 4.”

At Ecuador’s ports, the police and armed forces attempt to management the scenario.

Boats patrol the waters, police scan banana containers for bricks of cocaine – even police scuba divers seek for medication hidden beneath ships.

Everyone seems to be closely armed, even these merely guarding banana containers earlier than they’re loaded into transport containers. It is because if medication are discovered throughout a search, a corrupt port employee would doubtless be concerned, and it may set off a violent incident.

Regardless of these efforts, police say the quantity of cocaine being efficiently smuggled out of Ecuador has reached a file excessive. Rising demand and financial elements are blamed.

Practically 300 tonnes of medicine had been seized final yr – a brand new annual file, in accordance with Ecuador’s inside ministry.

Main Christian Cozar Cueva of the Nationwide Police says that “there was a couple of 30% enhance in seizures headed for Europe in recent times”.

This enhance in cocaine shipments has made it extra harmful for these caught up within the provide chain.

Truck driver “Juan” says the rise of “container contamination” makes him extra susceptible.

He says officers seized a container the day earlier than with two tonnes of medicine: “It was kilos, now we speak about tonnes.”

“If you happen to do not contaminate the containers, you will have two choices: depart the job or find yourself lifeless.”

An economic system battered by the Covid pandemic left extra Ecuadoreans susceptible to gang recruitment.

A state that was financially stretched post-pandemic, a safety pressure which had much less expertise coping with organised crime, and beforehand lax visa guidelines facilitated European gangs’ presence there post-2020.

Monica Luzárraga says 2021 was the yr when the “Albanian mafia infiltration took off”.

She says this era coincided with an “inflow” of Albanian residents and a spike in banana exports, together with to Albania.

“It is a profitable enterprise that harms Ecuador and advantages felony organisations. How can we settle for an economic system constructed on struggling?”

This ire towards overseas cartels is unsurprising, given their contribution to rising violence.

However one factor some traffickers and people combating them agree on: the commerce is fuelled by shoppers, notably in Europe, the US and Australia.

UN information exhibits world cocaine consumption has hit file ranges. Its surveys counsel the UK has the world’s second highest charge of cocaine use.

The UK’s Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) estimates the UK consumes about 117 tonnes of cocaine yearly and has the most important market in Europe.

Proof suggests consumption within the UK is rising.

The UK Dwelling Workplace’s evaluation of wastewater suggests cocaine consumption elevated by 7% from 2023 to 2024. NCA operations seized about 232 tonnes of cocaine in 2024, in contrast with 194 tonnes in 2023.

The NCA’s deputy director of menace management, Charles Yates, says this makes the UK the “nation of selection” for organised crime teams who revenue from the excessive demand.

He estimates the UK cocaine market is price round £11bn ($14.2bn), and felony gangs make about £4bn a yr within the UK alone.

These combating these gangs in Ecuador, like prosecutor José, say it’s all the way down to “nations whose nationals are shoppers to train higher management” on these financing the commerce.

Its victims take many varieties.

For Mr Hidalgo it’s the banana exporters struggling reputational and financial injury. For Ms Luzárraga, it’s “youngsters, adolescents who’re being co-opted by felony gangs”.

“In Europe there are residents prepared to pay giant quantities of cash to have the medication they eat. The medication which are in the end costing the lives of Ecuadorean residents.”

The NCA stresses that in addition to these “catastrophic” results on communities alongside the provision chain, cocaine use is claiming further casualties in customers attributable to cardiovascular and psychological impacts. Cocaine-related deaths within the UK elevated by 30% in 2023 in comparison with 2022, to 1,118.

The NCA additionally warns that the drug exacerbates home violence.

He’s clear legislation enforcement’s efforts to sort out the provision aren’t sufficient: “Provide facet motion by itself isn’t going to be the reply. What’s actually essential is altering the demand.”

From drug gang members to the nation’s president, that is Ecuador’s message to Europe, too.

President Daniel Noboa, who’s standing for a second time period within the presidential election run-off on 13 April, has made combating felony gangs considered one of his major priorities and deployed the navy to sort out gang-related violence.

He instructed the BBC: “The chain that ends in ‘UK enjoyable’ entails a whole lot of violence.”

“What’s enjoyable for one individual in all probability entails 20 homicides alongside the way in which.”

Extra reporting by Jessica Cruz