Drug cartels are using the Galápagos Islands as a gas station for the boats they use to smuggle cocaine north to Mexico and the United States. The cartels extort local fishermen who have access to subsidized gas. The large swaths of undeveloped land and small ports and airports on the islands make it easy for drugs to be smuggled through. In 2023, the navy seized nearly 25 tons of cocaine around the Galápagos—a 150 percent increase over 2022. Weapons are now also being smuggled along routes near the islands as Ecuadorian gangs fight for control of drug routes and violence in Ecuador soars.People hang out in Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island, Galápagos on April 25, 2023. While there is some demand for cocaine locally in this tourist hotspot, the majority is passing through on routes from South America north to Mexico and the US. Mexican and Albanian cartels’ efforts to meet an increasing demand for cocaine have aided in a historic increase in violence in Ecuador.

Locals dive into the water near the Artisanal Market to snorkel and cool off in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos on April 21, 2023. This swimming hole is near one of the ports that fishermen, who are being extorted for their gas, leave from.

Tourists take photos as they visit Bartolomé Island, Galápagos on April 23, 2023. While tourists bring a small demand for cocaine locally, most tourists would not notice the signs of cartel influence in the area.

Myr. Velasquez Farias Francisco Vinicio, a police officer, waves to a friend in Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island, Galápagos on April 25, 2023. He watches over the main port on the island and handles incidents with seized drugs. At one point, cocaine washed up on a beach near this port.

An Ecuadorian Coast Guard team patrols the ports for suspicious activity in Guayaquil, Ecuador on April 20, 2023. The teams that patrol the waters around Ecuador’s biggest export hub often come head-to-head with gang members who use container ships, submarines and fishing vessels to smuggle cocaine out of the violence-torn country to the US, Mexico and Europe. Guayaquil has been wracked with car bombings, murders, and hostage situations in recent months attributed to drug gangs. Most recently, Los Choneros gang leader José Adolfo Macías Villamar escaped a Guayaquil prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking. This led the president to declare a state of emergency in the country.

An Ecuadorian Coast Guard team, including Victor John Coronado, boards and inspects a boat that they suspected smuggled gas off the coast of San Cristobal, Galápagos on April 27, 2023. Fishing vessels like this one are frequently used to smuggle the subsidized gas to drop points in the waters around the Galapagos, where cartel boats pick the gas tanks up to fuel their journeys north. In this case, the men claimed to have been out fishing and heading home. However, the Coast Guard said they were low on gas, all of their fishing equipment was stored and dry, and they did not have any fish onboard. While the team had their suspicions, they had nothing to hold the fishermen with so they let them go.

An Ecuadorian Coast Guard team brings their vessel, called the Darwin Island, back to San Cristobal, Galápagos on April 27, 2023. Officials estimate that seventy percent of the cocaine in Europe was smuggled out of Ecuador. Islanders, especially on nearby Isabela, have heard unauthorized planes and found packages of cocaine on beaches for years, but are often scared to report them. The navy intelligence service is looking into rumors that uninhabited areas hold clandestine runways for drug-laden planes.

Hilda Moscoso Espinoza, whose son has struggled with cocaine addiction for years, poses for a portrait on her bed at her farm on Isabela Island, Galápagos on April 26, 2023. Growing up on the island, she remembers when there were so few people there that they ate meals communally. “Little by little, the drugs are taking over the island,” she said. “And there is no help.”

An abandoned plane sits at Jose de Villamil Airport, where a “ghost plane” landed and subsequently disappeared, on Isabela Island, Galápagos on April 24, 2023. A mystery unfolded when an unauthorized plane landed at the tiny Isabela airport. Its pilot and crew escaped and, two months later, the plane disappeared. The mystery was never solved and the plane was never found. An airport administrator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was terrified to go to work and later was offered $250,000 by a stranger in exchange for access to the runway. The administrator declined, saying his life didn’t have a price. He said that intelligence officials later confirmed that the island was awash in drug money and the airport was an ideal place for “narcoplanes”.

A crowd watches as a large boat catches on fire in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos on April 21, 2023. Later that night, a fisherman speaking anonymously out of fear for his life talked about how he had been extorted to bring subsidized gas for fishing to drop points for cartel boats. Local leaders, fishermen, intelligence officials, and residents all painted a picture of a place where locals get rich seemingly overnight, people are scared to speak out, and a cash-based local economy filled with tourists is perfect for money laundering. This UNESCO World Heritage site is increasingly facing a crisis as Ecuador’s drug cartels’ influence and violence grows.