Cocaine (Full Episode) | Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller

foreign all started out with Drug Money [Music] town was built on coke money every bit of it if you did cocaine in America in the 80s it almost certainly passed through Miami Miami's cocaine City the main cocaine Transit point between the American Mainland and the Bahamas millions of dollars worth were smuggled in by this man alone I got paid 500 000 a trip I wouldn't do a friendly list rival gangs battled for their share of the drug profits making Miami the murder capital of America and inspiring my favorite TV show as a kid this was my first glimpse into the cocaine underworld I was fascinated by the money the violence the Larger than Life characters and of course Crockett's fashion choices I had no idea that decades later the Miami smuggling scene would be hot again and that I'd be the one chasing the traffickers they're starting to bring the old roots back with connections off to Central South America this is a story about one of the most infamous and intractable smuggling routes on the planet foreign [Music] us War on Drugs how is cocaine as cheap and plentiful as ever cops don't catch anybody ma'am people tell let's go let's go we were spotting and who are the people putting their lives on the line to deliver Americans their preferred party drug I'm heading on a 3 000 mile Journey from green leaves to White Lines to find out [Music] police checkpoint okay okay when your job is reporting on black markets a few checkpoints are to be expected but nothing stirs the butterflies in the belly quite like the last checkpoint the one before you step into ungoverned territory like this is as we clear the checkpoint we enter a lawless region that produces roughly one-fifth of the world's cocaine the brain [Music] excellent my guide to this world is my friend Ceviche who lived in the rain for many years right there locals here in the rain have been growing coca for thousands of years but this isn't your typical farming community foreign vigilante militians like this are the de facto law of the land [Music] skoka Farmers turned soldiers are trained to defend their communities [Music] and their crop coca leaves okay so okay saying I should just chew it not swallow it it tastes like Leaf um here in Peru it's actually legal to grow and sell coca leaves it only becomes illegal if you're processing those leaves into cocaine is foreign the militias formed in response to The Shining path a ruthless communist group that Rose to power in the 1980s its members have waged a decades-long civil war to overthrow the Peruvian government The Shining path controls key smuggling roots and has been known to attack communities to expand its territory that's how the group makes its money extorting Growers makers and Smugglers for protection or safe Passage is [Music] the politics in the brain are complicated nothing to fund their fight against The Shining path and to support their families these Farmers sell their coca Harvest and they never ask questions about the buyer's intended use but the truth is nearly 94 of coca leaves in the frame go to drug traffickers here the drug trade is controlled by small family clients who operate independently and all of them are suspicions of Outsiders when locals see a bunch of Gringos they think we're American law enforcement that's why I'm leaning on Ceviche to help me get access to the next step in the process services turns out that one of ceviche's former passengers is still active in the cocaine trade he's part of a family clan that buys coca leaves and processes them into cocaine paste his contact agreed to meet but gave us very little information we were told to take the one road out of town and wait for further instructions so we're driving for an hour up the mountain in these dirt roads we're heading to meet the dueno the owner of a drug operation who's given us a green light to film his lab in the jungle all I know is that I've been promised to see the place where cocaine begins it's 3 000 mile Journey to the U.S but for now everyone is just nervous about getting there we've been told that every time a car approaches or we go through these towns that have lights that we should hide our faces because they don't want to see you know any Gringos in this area because it would raise suspicions serious quite dangerous even though we've gotten permission to see this cocaine lab to get there we have to pass through land controlled by other clans and militias who have no idea who we are or what we're up to so I'm a little Stardust when in the middle of a deserted Road [Music] a man suddenly appears out of the darkness trying to figure out who this guy is [Music] the chemist the key figure in the whole operation was standing on a mountain Road in the pitch dark sometimes you can't make this stuff up so they're checking the area to make sure that everything is safe okay shut off all lights and here it is the entry into the jungle employees [Music] he's saying that the town close by if they see us they can create problems to all of us these labs are the economic engines for the local communities without them there would be little demand for coca leaves that's why villagers are so protective we're basically a threat to their livelihood [Music] the chemist has made me promise that I won't reveal the location I told him it's not a problem I can barely see my own feet wow this is it it's right here wow foreign the cocaine pit the starting point for such a storied Black Market trade ranks up there but as the reporter High wears off I realize that the whole process boils down to brute labor and simple chemistry [Music] so they've been doing this for three days and now this is the final step which they mix it with salt it takes 400 kilos almost 900 pounds of cocoa leaves to make one kilo of cocaine they are soaked in water acid and bleach which draws the drugs out of the leaves and now it's ready to be moved on to smaller containers to the laboratorium foreign here in this makeshift lab they'll start the purification process Ary [Music] researchers discovered how to extract cocaine from coca leaves over 150 years ago and Americans got their first taste of the drug in Coca-Cola back in the 19th century before it was banned by the federal government in 1914. it's a really really intense smell is Gasolina see to purify cocaine in the middle of the Peruvian jungle they figured out how to extract the drug using simple and a whole lot of gasoline in this lab each batch requires 70 gallons foreign gasoline with each toxic additive the drug becomes more and more concentrated and what they're doing is that they're removing the top of it which is the fuel and the bottom is a clear sort of liquid and that's where the drugs remain as you see it's pretty dark and that's all the gasoline and the clear part now underneath it's okay the drugs right there so they call that clear liquid they call it the soup [Music] he asked me if I wanted to try it TV oh check this out this is amazing it's crazy to think that only weeks from now this Jungle Soup will disappear up some Americans nostrils now it's time for the final step a splash of ammonia to solidify the drugs okay they have to speed it up we have to speed it up guys with so many livelihoods depending on this lab ceviche's friend is taking a massive risk giving us a peek behind the curtain so when the chemist disappears for a moment I begin to worry [Music] okay guys we have to go right now [Music] let's go let's go we were spotted by somebody up on the road they said that we have to get him to the car and get out of here to go fast no no no stand intro are they all inside [Music] thankfully we escape without incident but the drugs long journey North is only just beginning it's a new day in the rain last night's coca paste has hardened into bricks the next challenge getting them out of the valley the easiest way would be by plane Peruvian military now has permission to shoot down suspected drug flights driving the coke out would also work but the roads here are littered with police checkpoints so that's given way to the preferred method of transport in a backpack the same guys who ran the lab ask us to meet them outside of town at a Trailhead that leads up into the Andes copy that we're uh we're following the Convoy we're right behind the other two cars okay okay we're here okay they are known as mochileros the Spanish word for Backpacker their backpacks are filled with bricks and powder they are the Sherpas of the cocaine world I was surprised to learn that the chemist from last night is also a mochilero is 15 minutes ago and I'm already exhausted and I'm not carrying 10 kilos on my back foreign [Music] [Music] rival Clans corrupt cops thieves of all kinds it's the wild west out on the trails I asked what would happen if they get attacked [Music] yes [Music] I'm following the cocaine highway from the mountains of Peru to the nightclubs of Miami it's 4am and I'm embedded with a group of young men risking their lives to hike 30 kilos out of the rain Valley so this is the main stuff they take a can of tuna Saltines they have a plastic that they use to cover themselves in case it rains and then alcohol which they say helps with altitude sickness because they're growing high up the mountain so this here is worth nine hundred dollars each a kilo in the US once it's processed it's worth twenty five thousand dollars foreign that means these guys are carrying about 750 000 worth of Rocco Kane [Music] Peruvian cocaine paste some of the most sought after in the world the same bricks that Escobar would fly into Colombia to process and to powder it looks so unassuming it's hard to imagine the trail of violence left in its wake up again [Music] um let's see throw a set of models [Music] is [Music] see yes you say s thank you they're getting anxious while leaving watching these young men pack I'm feeling conflicted I know what they're doing is illegal and that the drug they're carrying has caused millions of families around the world to suffer but after spending two days with them I can't help but be concerned for their safety they're just kids only a few years older than my own son seems so unfair that the lack of options in the frame means they have to risk their lives just so Americans can get their cheap high so they said they're going to walk for 12 more hours and then uh and then rest and then continue for a day and a half more okay [Music] we make plans to meet up at the end of their Journey but I'm worried Anything could happen on the trail [Music] as the mochileros rise out of the valley Rises as well theirs is just the first leg of a global distribution Network if the mochillero survived the hike it will sell to a new owner we'll smuggle the drugs by car into Lima and then head north each time the drugs change hands the price jumps Smugglers must account for the real costs of transport and the risk plus each will take their share of the profits eventually the cocaine passes through Ecuador to Colombia my next stop [Music] at first glance turbo looks like any other Caribbean fishing town but just beneath the surface [Music] people say the life improve is partying it's having sex the dream car to park yard and you know soon you might be at that man out on the streets because nearly everyone here also living in a dangerous world when code is mainly depopulated by fishermen but still cocaine business is the main business Oliver schmieg is a German photojournalist who spent decades in Colombia documenting the drug trade what we have to understand is like mostly drugs going from Colombia to the U.S they are passing through Turbo if you want to run sparkling routes right through the old term that's like the perfect place it's very easy to recruit people who are able to drive a cargo boss what are the chances we could see one of these boats or even ride in one of them you're 21 years the Cavalier is access to drug cartels and it's just a matter of how much they might trust in US Oliver works his contacts and directs me to a dock on the edge of town which I'm not allowed to show on camera but just as he promised I met by two cocaine smugglers in a boat [Music] foreign the boats are empty and Smugglers agreed to talk about their work but they won't let me near the product the multi-million dollar payloads they move are too valuable to risk showing them off to foreign journalists foreign [Music] [Music] Smugglers use these low-tech fiberglass boats to outmaneuver the Colombian military and its Ally the U.S Coast Guard radar waves which easily detect metals can only get an extremely weak signal of fiberglass making boats like this practically invisible foreign maintenance foreign apples okay there's a boat over there okay it's a fisherman but they're they were saying before that if anything if any boat approaches that they had immediately take off their mask and we put the cameras down and we just say we're doing a show about tourism okay they're not feeling very comfortable okay they're gonna take off their masks yo I'm in a boat off the coast of Colombia with two very nervous cocaine smokers they were spooked by some passing fishermen so they're taking me into deeper waters where they say it's safer to speak so he was saying that all these fishermen everyone here basically works for the clan so if they see him talking to us they'll go inform him and that can be dangerous for them [Music] Anthony [Music] is Colombia's largest and most powerful drug cartel made up of mostly hardened paramilitary Fighters and wanted war criminals how violent exactly is the Glendale golfer well I mean you have to be quite careful obviously you're dealing with criminals at the end of the day so like one and a half year called that just shut down the whole village so they are quite powerful like the kind of Supercar top it might be even a more powerful than groups in Mexico for example I know that getting access to cartel leadership is a bigger ask for days it didn't look like it was going to happen and then out of nowhere we got the green light we just made the first right guys we're all together let's go in the car ahead of us is one of the clandel golfo's top commanders in this region we have no idea where we're going but we're following the commander so there are a couple of uh see soldiers right up here and there's a cough up there too okay but with the military everywhere we're all a bit on edge let's try to get in very quickly here okay this is it it's a little ranch house okay one two can you hear me one two three four five okay we're good even though the commander and his bodyguard trust Oliver this is the first time we've met and they're skeptical s I show him some photos of my past work and hope that will convince him that I'm not law enforcement [Music] okay by looking at something they eventually agreed to the interview okay in the traditional business world he might be considered a VP of operations is helping to manage a complicated Global criminal Network out of a farmhouse in the Colombian Countryside that's a weekly shipment of cocaine worth 25 million dollars on the streets of Miami in control Antonio Colombia the clando golf was top Commander otoniel is Colombia's Public Enemy Number One with a 5 million dollar bounty on his head he's notorious for assassinating government officials and ordering the detonation of a grenade in the middle of a nightclub he demands complete loyalty from his soldiers [Applause] foreign [Music] as we talk I begin to realize that even when you're near the top of the cartel food chain safety is no guarantee [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign in the last few years cocaine trafficking in Colombia has reached record levels what these men tell me this rise has been anything but glamorous yet the country is the distribution center for the global cocaine trade from here roughly half the supply is shipped to Europe Africa Asia and Australia the other half will end up in the United States [Music] that's if Smugglers can evade these guys we just spotted a Northbound vessel heading from the south and a known drug trafficking area usually with a vessel that Si's over 40 feet has cabins spaces that you could actually hide a large amount of Narcotics we're gonna board a vessel that is suspected of narcotic smuggling you're going to encounter a master he may or may not be armed watch out for each other your job gain compliance however means necessary in the last five years the U.S Coast Guard has seized a record amount of cocaine at Sea we're here today to offload 14 200 pounds about 11 tons 20 metric tons of pure uncut cocaine worth over 190 million dollars [Music] the drug traffic organizations are creative and they're always looking for ways to elude detection that could be a go fast vessel that could be a low profile vessel it could be a semi-submersible submersible that could be legitimate commercial traffic valve we're gonna scramble the boarding team together get them on the small boat to go over and investigate and see what's going on without enough to figure out what's actually physically going on until you put boots on Deck the most dangerous parts of an officer's job when they board what they suspect is a drug-running vote smugglers in this situation have a difficult choice abandon their cargo and face the cartel's Wrath we'll try to outrun the red white and blue Sky let me see your hands uh without reaching for touching you got any weapons on board all right we're gonna come on board and uh do uh inspect On Your Vessel next you guys are in compliance with all federal rules and regulations for a vessel this size 141 miles from Miami the Coast Guard has intercepted a suspected smuggling boat [Music] more traditional drug smuggling routes in the Caribbean are having an uptick in activity you have non-stop boat traffic and some of them could be legitimately fishing but also have a drugs hidden on board cocaine accounts for 94 of all narcotics seized at Sea after the boarding we discovered that the vessel was Charter For Hire just in a suspicious area everybody on board was compliant and it's you know the best outcome you could have in a situation when you're talking about safety no drugs are found the Coast Guard moves on catching drug Runners on the high seas is an elusive game with cat and mouse we're operating an area larger than the continental United States now imagine you have three or four police cars patrolling the continental United States that's essentially what the Coast Guard with our ships is doing plus out here it's just pivotal before those drugs make it towards the U.S and can be dispersed throughout the different states with such a large area to patrol it's impossible to catch them all in all the efforts every day doing the mission we only get 10 percent of known drugs that are being moved towards the United States the remaining 90 of cocaine slips past undetected heading to Miami under the cover of Darkness 40 years after cocaine built this Skyline the drug money is still pouring in this convertible is a tribute to my childhood crashes Crockett and tubs as I cruise towards South Beach to meet a coke dealer I'm actually thinking back to the final episode of Miami Vice when they decide to turn in their badges because they realize that the War on Drugs is unwinnable after 3 000 miles on the cocaine Highway I'd be lying if I said I didn't wander the same do you have some of the stuff you sell with I will do something for you you have some in your pocket yeah I bought a couple bags with me just looks like regular patterns just a couple bags and Dana you know it looks like a Cigar Case yeah for sure that's what I keep it in you know it's a little more inconspicuous the way I make most of my money is like 20 bags I'll come to South Beach and I sell a 20 bag for forty dollars which is multiply that's all on a good day I'll get two ounces for about two thousand bucks and if you sell it all how much money can you make about five thousand almost six how long does it take you to sell that um that'll be going in three days so you can make three thousand dollars in three days essentially a thousand dollars a day yeah about that is it pure cocaine that you sell I mean it's all right yeah it'll keep people up for days at a time for sure Beach loves it in the clubs everybody you know South Beach is cocaine and this year in this generation that's what everybody wants everybody doesn't fun they come to Miami they want to party in the party city that's what it's all about it's just after midnight and the dealer agrees to let me watch him work but only if I play by his rules so we can't have our cameras out there and the only way he agreed for us to film this was just we'd stay in the car and we'd film it from here how do you go about selling it he's got to be low-key you gotta be ahead of your game you know because people try to set you up it's they're stuff yeah you got to be prepared for sure sometimes when I deal with my weight you know I have to bring a pistol with me stuff like that because people try to rob you what kind do you have a 357 Magnum with a six inch barrel it's one of my favorites have you used it I wouldn't want to comment on that he's got a phone call and he's walking somewhere and then he just went in there somewhere I do mostly everything right now just do text messages I have like a burner form it's an untraceable phone okay he's walking no this way so I'm just gonna check on him see what's up 40 bucks right there inside the pizza place you just went into the bathroom gave her and she gave you the money and that was it okay how many people do you sell to in a week more or less you think in a week 75 people maybe wow that's a lot product so and so aren't you afraid of getting hot I mean now I am because you have a family and stuff like that but still got to feed them you know what I'm saying got to take care of the family and it means necessary that's all it's a small sacrifice right keep a little bail money to the side be all right I'm ready for whatever happens very few people know the journey a kilo of cocaine makes to get to the United States or the hands that it touches along the way foreign but the path it follows from beginning to end is shaped by simple economics that's as clear on the streets of Miami as it is on the boats of Colombia or the trails of Peru Pakistan they're here back in the frame the chemist and the would-be dentist have just made their drop another 30 kilos are headed North Carolina little security is trouble because [Music] again foreign [Music]

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 1,169,736

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, full episode, Cocaine, Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller, Mariana Van Zeller, Trafficked, Mariana, smuggling routes, Peruvian valley, Caribbean coast, Colombia, Miami, cocaine production, party drug, drug, trafficked with mariana van zeller full episode

Id: gCwdJS5Sd-k

Length: 47min 22sec (2842 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 22 2023