The unlikely South American ally helping lead Trump's drug cartel crackdown

NEW YORK — Ecuador has emerged as a key regional ally in President Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on drug cartels and narcoterrorism, with U.S. and Ecuadorian forces working side by side to intercept narcotics shipments and dismantle transnational criminal networks, the country’s foreign minister told Fox News Digital.

Foreign Minister Roberto Kury said the increasingly close cooperation with Washington has delivered "a lot of positive results" in recent months, pointing specifically to drug shipments uncovered through U.S. intelligence and joint work on the ground.

"There is an intelligence and cooperation from the United States, but there is also always the presence of Ecuadorian military or police.

They work together," Kury told Fox News Digital in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N.

General Assembly this week.

For Ecuador, the stakes are enormous.

Roughly 70% of the world’s cocaine passes through Ecuadorian ports, an FBI official told lawmakers earlier this year, according to the Congressional Research Service, as criminal groups battle for control of trafficking routes carrying cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru to markets abroad.

Meanwhile, Kury noted: "Most of the drugs go to the United States.

So that’s why the United States shares the problem." US MILITARY BOARDS, SEARCHES AND SINKS VESSEL ALLEGEDLY SUPPORTING LOS CHONEROS NARCO-TERRORISTS For the U.S., Ecuador has become a proving ground for an early priority laid out in Trump’s foreign policy: using American military power against threats closer to home as Washington turns its attention back toward the Western Hemisphere.

The explosion in the drug trade has transformed the small South American country.

Once considered one of Latin America’s safer countries, Ecuador is now at the frontline of the region’s cartel fight, fueling a surge in violence that prompted President Daniel Noboa to declare an "internal armed conflict" against criminal groups and deploy the military against them.

"We have found many drugs and shipments through this cooperation, so it’s very positive for Ecuador," Kury said of the partnership with the U.S.

Asked whether U.S. forces were participating directly in operations against cartels rather than limiting their role to intelligence and training, Kury was unequivocal about the joint nature of the effort, noting, "They work together with our local authorities." But Kury stopped short of giving Washington carte blanche to use military force inside Ecuador when asked whether his government would permit the U.S. to strike a cartel target on Ecuadorian soil.