QUITO, Oct 29 - For years, the neighborhood watch group in the working-class area of Solanda in Ecuadorean capital Quito had patrolled their nighttime streets armed with little more than whistles and sticks, on the lookout for cellphone snatching and other petty crimes.

But then they realized the criminals were changing. Members of notorious national gangs began to move into the area, and shootings, contract killings and extortion took hold. The watch suspended the patrols, fearful they might be targeted themselves. Their place was taken by heavily armed troops, sent by the national government.

Ecuador's importance as a transit point for cocaine exports from Colombia and Peru has spiked over the last half-decade, stoking an explosion in violence and crime in the once tranquil South American country that has caught up everyone from Pacific fishermen to politicians, journalists and grandmothers forced from their homes.

President Daniel Noboa, an ally of the administration of US President Donald Trump, has responded with a widespread military, police and legislative crackdown on crime, sending soldiers into the streets and hardening sentences, among other measures. The government has notched several major captures or killings of gang leaders, but that has led to fragmentation, creating vicious internecine violence and splinter groups seeking new territory.

That now includes Quito. This historic Andean city, with its whitewashed colonial buildings, cobbled streets, and backdrop of cloudcapped volcanoes, has long been a draw for tourists and digital nomads. But it is becoming an increasing focus of criminal activity, residents, police and analysts say. Gangs are using local drug sales to gain a foothold in neighborhoods, taking advantage of the capital’s strategic location to distribute drugs to the country’s ports, from where cocaine destined mostly for Europe and the US is shipped.

“Criminal organizations have tried to establish themselves in certain neighborhoods through small-scale drug trafficking," police Lieutenant Colonel Juan Chacon told Reuters as his team conducted a raid on an alleged drug distribution site in central Quito. "That connects them to a range of other crimes." Los Lobos, Los Choneros and Los Tiguerones, all gangs which the US has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, are present in Quito, according to police.

Solanda, built as a public housing project in the 1980s, with a busy commercial district and narrow streets of modest houses, appears on a national government list of high-risk Quito areas. Residents have installed a surveillance camera system on every street corner and metal gates at entrances to side streets to prevent unknown people from entering.

“With the cameras, you can identify the criminal and avoid exposing yourself,” said Maria Eugenia Alban, a community leader in Solanda. “Now criminals are no longer acting alone, and they are armed.”GANGS 'TRYING TO ESTABLISH A FOOTHOLD' The pushback from authorities has had some success. An increased security response in Solanda lowered violent death figures to just two between January and September of this year, down from 13 in the same period of 2025, according to government records.

Violent death figures in Quito overall fell in 2024 and 2025 from a high of 294 in 2023, according to Interior Ministry data, as Noboa sent soldiers onto the streets. And violence still remains below that of Ecuador's port cities like Guayaquil and Duran. But, the armed forces say, it is a constant battle.

“Organized crime groups are trying to establish a foothold in Quito,” Lieutenant Colonel Miguel Saavedra, head of a tactical army brigade which is responsible for controlling guns, ammunition and explosives in the capital, told Reuters at a checkpoint where his unit was checking cars for weapons. His troops were seeking to "safeguard and restore security" in the city, he added.

About 4,000 police and military personnel were deployed at entry points and along strategic corridors in Quito as part of a security plan announced by Noboa in August. The city has been under a 60-day state of emergency since September.

During the first six weeks of the plan, police arrested more than 300 people, according to national police figures. The military joined police operations to check for weapons at entrances to high-risk neighborhoods and conducted targeted patrols.

Drug seizures in Quito were up nearly 500% between January and September, compared with the same period a year before, according to police figures.

Military and police operations across Ecuador cost gangs involved in drug trafficking, illegal mining and fuel and arms trafficking nearly $20 billion in losses between January and July, according to the Defense Ministry.

However, crackdowns in one place can prompt criminal groups to seek out more favorable territory where residents are less wary of crime, said Colonel Mario Pazmino, a former head of army intelligence and current security analyst.

He said Quito is part of the “cocaine triangle," serving as a transit and temporary storage point for drugs coming from the Colombian coastal city of Tumaco and Putumayo province, before being transported across Ecuador along Pacific and Amazon road corridors.

The capital’s strategic position has been exploited by a growing number of criminal groups over the past year, said Tiziano Breda, an analyst at conflict-monitoring organization ACLED, although its status as a "transit point" lowers the risk of it being the focus of the sort of violent disputes between groups seen elsewhere.

“In Quito’s case, international cartels and national gangs are beginning to converge and establish themselves,” Pazmino said. “Quito is a hub city. The gangs come to protect the merchandise and look for other activities.”REUTERS