Two subs and a losing battle

A submarine that Ecuadorean officials say was used by drug cartel on display at the entrance of a naval base in Guayaquil, Ecuador. — Daniele Volpe/The New York Times

THE commander of Ecuador’s coast guard gazed at the submarine that had been used to carry drugs with a defeated look in his eyes, exhausted from endless interdiction efforts that seem to go nowhere, his sailors risking their lives while the cocaine keeps flowing.

Drug smugglers, he said, were always many steps ahead.