The BBC's Orla Guerin joined Ecuadorian police on patrol as they confront gang members amid a huge surge in drug-related crime sweeping the country. Ecuador has become a key transit hub for cocaine trafficking, with drugs flowing in from neighbouring Colombia and Peru, the world's two largest cocaine producers, before being smuggled onward by powerful domestic gangs.

These gangs are reportedly linked to Mexican cartels and Albanian mafia groups, underlining the international scope of the trafficking networks operating in the country. The scale of the violence is stark: Ecuador recorded one of the highest murder rates in the world last year, with more than 9,200 people killed, according to figures from the country's interior ministry.