Correspondent Regina Garcia Cano, photographer Martín Mejia and video freelancer César Olmos explored how bananas and cocaine end up inside the same shipping containers for transatlantic trips to European ports, why the ubiquitous fruit has become a favorite of drug traffickers, and what Ecuador’s main port city feels like as crime and violence transforms people’s lives. Garcia Cano decided to travel to the port city of Guayaquil, the epicenter of violent crime, to figure out how the two global trades collided in the once-calm South American nation. The team got key access and interviews to show how deep drug trafficking has infiltrated the industry responsible for 30% of the world’s banana supply.
AP explains how drug cartels are using Ecuadorian bananas shipments to send cocaine to Europe
Cars pass in the middle of banana farm in Los Rios, Ecuador, Aug. 15, 2023.
AP Photo / Martín Mejia