cocaine traffickers

A patrol captain in Spain ordered his team to withdraw, saying 'They are going to kill us', in an encounter with drug-smuggling speedboats that outrun authorities and deliver cocaine by the ton. The incident is being cited as a symbol of Europe's losing battle against maritime narcotics trafficking along the Spanish coast.

In Manta, Ecuador — known as the world's tuna capital — fishermen are being recruited or coerced into drug trafficking, fueling a deadly wave of violence along the coast. Cartels are using fishing boats to move cocaine, and crews who refuse face lethal consequences. The Wall Street Journal's report on how the drug war has reached the fishing industry is drawing wide attention.