Ecuador was once perceived as a haven of peace sandwiched between cocaine-producing Colombia and Peru. The small South American nation was renowned as the world's top exporter of bananas and home to the biodiverse Galapagos islands, where British naturalist, Charles Darwin, developed his theory of evolution. However, in the past five years, things have taken a turn for the worse. Large ports, lax security and endemic corruption have lured foreign drug cartels to its shore. These drug cartels have increasingly felt the heat of the war on drugs in countries like Mexico and Colombia, thereby turning their attention to a nation like Ecuador. Ecuadorian prisons have turned into veritable battlegrounds between these narco-gangs. On the 12th of August, the Ecuadorian army and the national police raided prison number 4 in Guayaquil. Cocaine, marijuana, ammunition, mobile phones and unauthorized electrical appliances were seized in the raid. Mohammed Saleh brings you this report.

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