From Freddy Kruegers To Peaky Blinders: A Look At Ecuador's Drug Gangs

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on April 07, 2025, shows Ecuador's leftist presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez speaking during a campaign event with women in Guayaquil, Ecuador on April 7, 2025, and Ecuador's President and presidential candidate Daniel Noboa delivering a speech during a campaign rally ahead of the presidential runoff, in Riobamba, central Ecuador, on April 3, 2025. (Credit: AFP)

Ecuadorans go to the polls on Sunday under the shadow of surging drug violence and a troubling explosion in the number of local gangs and mafias.

A flood of cocaine from Colombia and Peru through Ecuadoran ports has drawn a who's who of mafias from Albania to Italy to Mexico to this once-safe Andean nation.