The shipment had come not from Colombia or Peru, Latin America’s largest cocaine producers, but from Ecuador, the small nation sandwiched between them.
Ecuador has struggled for years with drug trafficking because of its geographic location, fairly porous borders and major Pacific Ocean ports.
An overcrowded, corrupt and poorly financed penal system has become a breeding ground for prison gangs that have formed alliances with powerful drug cartels from abroad.
These ingredients that have helped make Ecuador an increasingly major player in the global drug trade have also unleashed an extraordinary wave of violence, transforming life for millions of everyday Ecuadoreans.
Now it has drawn an international spotlight with the assassination last week of a presidential candidate just as the country prepares to vote on Sunday.
Locations:
Colombia, Peru, Ecuador