From the Jungle to the Street: The Life Cycle Of Cocaine | Real Stories Full-Length Documentary

foreign long regarded as the drug of choice of the super wealthy but today it's stronger cheaper and more dangerous than ever before with millions of users across the globe I don't remember the last time I've been even in a pub people aren't doing it [Music] now four casual cocaine users are going on camera to talk about their cocaine use I'd usually take cocaine either off a key or off my hand itself yeah just how much do they know about their drug of choice [Music] the reality of its Journey from the Amazon rainforest in Colombia what is this to a worldwide Market the human cost of the supply chain [Music] people have to go through all this [Music] and what happens when it becomes more than just a party drug basically I'm lucky to be alive will they still take drugs for fun or will living with the cartels change their minds forever I haven't really got a reason to stop using cocaine I don't see that there's an issue in doing it I think it's going to be a real eye-opener despite it being an illegal drug cocaine production is at its highest rate in history oh my God my parents are gonna kill me our four casual cocaine users come from across the UK and have never met there's still so much that we don't know first up public relations consultant Amber it's a pick-me-up makes you more alert makes you more aware of what's going on sobers you up a little bit if you've had too much to drink um shouldn't have too much to drink in the first place should you really airport load operator Louis I'd say taking cocaine in it in a massive uh sort of stadium watching your football team certainly those who make the atmosphere better for yourself but obviously that depends on the result [Music] thing about Coke is like after parties and stuff because everyone's like sat around and you're chatting and you get to know some real deep stuff about people people open up and Supermarket worker Troy [Music] the best time for me doing cocaine is just the moments with your mates when you're just all on the same level sort of thing and you just you look around you know like I'm having a buy-in time this is going to make banging memories [Music] yeah Amber is a 27 year old Public School educated art history graduate so it's quite privileged upbringing I was very lucky to have a private education from the age of eight that's a nice area to live in I suppose quite well to do I guess [Music] Amber lives with her mum Gail [Music] foreign [Laughter] like social classes and things it's everywhere my mum has always been aware my use of cocaine she did it when she was my age I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of I don't think doing drugs is anything to to feel like you're a bad person because you've tried it or anything like that nowadays it just seems to be so much more open people talk about it it doesn't have that I I don't know I mean I don't know that they do not the way that we talk about them I don't I don't think I don't know anybody else who has that kind of open relationship with their parents to be able to discuss these kinds of things I think it's good that we do because it's happening oh Amber Works in London and for her cocaine is just as much about staying up as getting high you have a few drinks I that time I'm old now I get tired I want to go home by midnight but you don't want to miss out on anything so someone will bring out a bag ago can you do a little bit and it'll keep you going I think the demographic of people using cocaine is huge cocaine's being used in the city in the outskirts of the city in the suburbs it's if anybody thinks it's not happening then they're blind I think depending on the quantity penalties for possession of cocaine range from a police caution to seven years in prison despite this one million Brits take the drug making the UK Europe's biggest consumer Kane is no longer just sold by drug dealers in a dark corner of a nightclub dealers now offer delivery send them a text and they'll bring it to wherever you are faster than a pizza a quarter of British cocaine users even order online using the dark web to have it delivered through the post [Music] getting a hold of it in London it's pretty easy you've usually got someone with you who's got a number well I live in the middle of nowhere but surprisingly enough it's quite easy to get a coat it depends really if it's a weekend you can get it piss easy in Manchester's but you can literally foam anybody or somebody might have it around you for five ten minutes marks like you wait you're waiting on it [Applause] Louis is 26 he loves his City loves his football and loves his job as an aircraft load controller my job entails dealing with the weight and balance of the aircraft so obviously going into work is quite a serious thing for me especially if you're dealing with ultra 400 passengers on the flight it's gonna be quite dangerous I'd probably say Manchester is one of the worst for cocaine if if I knew that I was on shift the next day I'd never take it the night before just simply because of the safety of my job he's an I take it easy to basically enhance the night yeah I was just getting ready for the night out in town Manchester see how it goes uh getting a club and just get on it basically yeah go on the Madden usually I'd probably say uh half half a gram uh that would personally do me obviously if the night gets a bit more messy then see what happens [Music] I believe if you can handle gold cane uh I don't see that there's an issue in doing it as long as you're in moderation and everyone's aware around you that you've done it and you're safe I don't see there's a massive issue [Music] Luke don't just pull them up a line because you're going to ruin all the pegs [Music] first found out that Lou took cocaine when he went to a festival and because he came home and he was slightly different and his eyes weren't quite right and I asked him the question and he was quite open and honest about it I found out I was really shocked purely because it's something I totally disagree with it's something neither me or his dad would have never taken anything like that hospital against smoking never mind never mind drugs of any form I can see why some families see cocaine as a big deal uh certainly my family see it as a big deal but I don't see the problem in taking it personally myself if as long as you're not over overdoing it [Music] overdoing it is riskier now than ever before in 10 years the average strength of cocaine on British streets has gone from 20 Purity to nearly 80 percent yeah the Coke in London I'd say does the job um where aren't what I get anyway we're testing samples from all over the country including Manchester and London I want to know what's in it um so let's find out you previously think you're always going to be good but I'm sure as soon as it gets tested there might be a different story that's a laboratory that carries out specialist narcotics analysis for the home office is there and it depends who you're buying it from I suppose not something to be proud of like yeah the drugs are undergoing two tests to identify the full contents of the powder and the exact percentage of pure cocaine in each sample the higher the percentage the stronger the drug much like the percentage of alcohol in beer or wine I heard 10 to 11ish oh my God I thought it would have been like 70 percent yeah honestly I'm shocked that you said that I think if you did have 60 70 Purity then yeah really senior chemist Dr Katiana preslin a fellow of the Royal Society of chemistry is an expert in the composition of cocaine in my spare time I volunteer with an organization called The Loop where we go to festivals and test strokes and so there's the option at some festivals that people can actually hand in their drugs and then we can test it and let them know what it actually is so dealing with drugs is not the first time today looking at these results Amber's London sample cost 50 pounds Louie's Manchester sample was 80 pounds both enough for one or two nights out but does price reflect a difference in strength a decade ago the average potency of cocaine was 20 percent so do you reckon in the last 10 years it's gone up or down I reckon it's gone I reckon it's higher lower definitely ten percent knowledge is probably good yeah I think it'd be higher so the actual amount in the London sample was 46.4 yeah what so just less than half of that that's quite good that's Manchester what do you think you think higher or lower lower yeah 78 wow I was thinking it'd be five ten percent max yeah 78 is just that's impressive thing to be proud of the 80 pound Manchester sample was just over 78 pure the current UK average getting the result of 78 or whatever it was [Music] I'd say I'm more happy than I thought it would be while less than half of the 50 pound sample from London was actually cocaine very surprised because actually I thought London would be the purest I don't know why because everything revolves around London apparently next Chanel's mum finds out her daughter uses cocaine do you do that here yeah but the sniffy drugs yeah all right more Brits take cocaine than in any other country in Europe and four are discovering the truth about their favorite drug cocaine cocaine Coke it'll flake Charlie dear beak snow and then you've got other names like Pub grub [Music] Bang from London and Manchester are being analyzed at a licensed Laboratory I want to know what's in it cocaine expert Dr presland has revealed the strength of the drug varies hugely I don't think it's anything to be proud of but even relatively pure cocaine is mixed with cheaper substances to bulk it up or mimic its effects what do you think might have been in your samples baking soda baking soda I feel like paracetamol or something like that I've heard that people put literally anything in it petrol uh creatine cement you smash up glass and to find little dusts and put it into the bag so it makes it seem like it weighs more than actually is yeah I'd be really interested to know what I've been putting up my nose after analyzing the samples from London and Manchester Dr presland has found signs of two additives that they may share Gonna Keep Your guesses to yourself for a minute I don't know what that is but it tastes quite nice it's actually lactose so it's kind of like if you've got people that are like lactose intolerant is that when you get bad belly yeah and also probably vegans probably don't want to be having lactose lactose is a cheap white sugar found in milk the second adulterant is just as common with a very bitter taste this is something you've all had today definitely had some of this today yeah what did you have first thing this morning to help you wake up coffee is that caffeine caffeine take a little bit of that and a little bit of that at the same time and see what it tastes like does it remind you of anything with stuff actually it actually tastes like cocaine yeah it tastes exactly like cocaine yeah it's weird while a small quantity of caffeine and lactose aren't considered harmful Amber's London sample contained a far more alarming substance oh my God it's got a cat on it all these different types of tablets are like dewormers for animals and it was called leather muscle is a pet cattle and sheep dewormer cocaine dealers mix it with the drug because it's a cheap way of increasing its potency 80 of most samples actually have it in what does it do to humans there's been a couple of cases of what have happened to like really heavy users okay it actually started to cause their skin to rot made it so real really real um because hair hair in it is a different thing yeah but actually having like someone like put it out in front of you yeah yeah and being like that was in that it's like that's disgusting Chanel is 25 a model and a professional makeup artist [Music] cocaine is extremely easy to get hold of and breasts or um about as easy as it is going to the shop to get cigarettes in 2017 more cocaine per person was consumed in Bristol than in any other British City and it's where Chanel lives with her mum Kim [Music] this is one I used to do um riding when I was younger look how happy I am just as a frog [Music] where I grew up there wasn't very many ethnic people at all so I was racially abused [Music] been spatter I've had people put [ __ ] on me I've been treated in viral ways but all those people that used to bully me when I was younger oh they want to be my best friend now Chanel's mum doesn't know she takes cocaine until now so what are you going to do to learn about drugs not the Smoky drugs the snooky drugs yeah did you do that here yeah but the sniffy drugs yeah right okay everyone does really because people aren't really open about it and don't really talk about it because younger people no everybody you'd be very surprised at who does people aren't really open about it because they think they're going to be judged by it I think the Law's got so much to do with that [Music] body so I'd say I do Co once every two weeks something like that attention oh I can't wait oh I usually have about half a gram on a night out [Music] oh I don't really know my limit to be honest I just kind of keep going until I think oh um not quite feeling 100 the best thing about Coke as strange as it sounds is I've made a lot of friends through it so like after parties and stuff because everyone's like sat around and you're chatting and you get to know some real deep stuff about people people open up there's probably nothing out there that make me change my mind about doing cocaine all people are showing up in hospital with problems from taking it cocaine related admissions have gone up nearly 140 percent in the last five years London South Bank university has a whole department researching the harms of drug misuse on society and the effect on the human body takes between five to ten minutes to properly kick in it makes me a lot more out there it's a pick-me-up probably chatty a lot more comfortable makes you more alert makes you more aware of what's going on and last anything between an hour to two hours depending on how much you've had I'm gonna be getting pleasure from things for professor of addictive behavior science Anthony Moss the key to understanding how cocaine works is to decipher the way our brains are wired to respond to pleasure I've never thought about what cocaine does to the brain but yeah I'm pretty interested to find out what actually does do we've got a sponge that represents the brain all thereabouts right so your brain's full of various different neurotransmitters and one of the neurotransmitters dopamine is the neurotransmitter in the brain the chemical that signals when something rewarding is happening so just to give an example if we were to put the brain in here just soak up a little bit of uh sort of fake dopamine something could happen to your life you eat a bar of chocolate for example if you happen to like chocolate then it will produce a rewarding effect which is to release an amount of dopamine into the brain but what then happens after it's been released into the brain is that it soaks it back up it reabsorbs it this is where cocaine plays a trick on the brain the drug is inhaled it enters the bloodstream through the nasal membranes and lungs and within minutes it triggers the brain to flood itself with dopamine now one of the effects of a drug like cocaine is that it stimulates more dopamine release than a sort of a natural reward mites but the other thing that cocaine does is to effectively create a barrier which means that it can't reabsorb and so that dopamine is left circulating around the brain cocaine prevents the dopamine from being quickly reabsorbed giving an extended feeling of pleasure that typically lasts 30 to 60 minutes so it's kind of a double whammy the first thing that it's doing is causing an increase in the release of dopamine the second thing that it's doing is stopping the dopamine from being naturally reabsorbed into the brain what's happening inside the brain concerns the trillions of microscopic synaptic gaps between nerve cells [Music] cocaine increases the production of the pleasure neurotransmitter dopamine which flows between the Gap once the stimulus has passed the dopamine would normally be sent back to be recycled but cocaine blocks The receptors allowing dopamine to remain in the brain until it dissipates naturally often leaving the user with a craving for more is that why it makes you possible to want it again yes absolutely so much yeah spring thinks this is good I want to do this again the brain can only produce a finite amount of dopamine so taking more cocaine won't always feel as good as the first time so by that point your brain is likely to be sort of largely depleted of dopamine it's not going to be entirely depleted but most of it's going to have been used up during the course of the night so you're kind of squeezing and squeezing and squeezing but you're getting a sort of diminishing return it's less of a positive impact at that point next morning you're going to feel a real down particularly if you've used quite a lot during the course of the night you're going to feel real really low until your body manages to replenish the dopamine [Music] twenty-year-old Troy comes from a quiet Country Village in Somerset Desmond a transmitter Troy Works in a supermarket and lives with his mum Emma have you got any overtime this week I'm going to be doing 13 hour shifts on Friday and Saturday that's a good thing but I think all the money you'll be getting yeah exactly my first time doing cocaine was quite unexpected we gate crashed this party in the neighboring Village and then we just looked at the floor or mate did and we found probably like half a gram of coke but because we were drunk we were just like was three years ago no cocaine is as regular in Troy's life as having a weekend beer I do cake about once a week or once a fortnight sort of thing so like it's like another night a little bit according to the home office the majority of Brits who take cocaine do so once or twice a year Troy would be classified as a frequent user we usually just sit in my room or go to my mate's house whack on the drum and base and just chat complete [ __ ] well you have to crush it up to make it all like Smooth that makes it nicer to sniff and you get a better experience off of it when kids are doing drugs I think it's better if they are doing them not under your supervision but maybe that that you're you're aware of what they're doing and how they're doing and where they're doing it I can probably get maximum four lines out of this the reason why I like cocaine is the fact that so controllable like to say if you want to get messy you can take load sort of things thank you the moderation cocaine is great cocaine is absolutely fine to do [Music] but what does getting messy in your bedroom do to your heart I do a lot you still get heart fluctuations like palpitations which is not good at all when I take cocaine yeah heart rate increases you will get maybe a bit hotter uh your heart rate's starting to go a bit more you're starting to move a bit more I do get heart palpitations a bit yeah what I do is sniff cocaine but he just got right on through it to be honest a heart rate monitor reveals that taking cocaine increases the heart rate significantly even while sat down the interesting point we'll draw your attention to here your heart rate shoots right up and hits a peak of just below 120 so it's a 50 increase and that happens in the space of just under two minutes when relaxed the arteries around the heart are a healthy round circle allowing blood to flow freely around the body when cocaine enters the bloodstream the arteries go into spasm changing them to a tight constricted shape this impedes normal blood flow forcing the heart to pump harder increasing heart rate and blood pressure repeated use over time can weaken the arteries and in worst case scenario can halt the blood flow altogether this causes the platelets in the blood to clot leading to a heart attack in effect your body's getting into a kind of a a ready state of alert that's a sort of a stress State on your body it's putting your body under stress when you're in that situation and essentially what cocaine is doing is replicating that sort of stressful experience and as we saw looking at the increase in your heart rate it happens in a really short space of time from the point that you take the drug to the point that your heart rate reaches quite a higher point one line of cocaine can instantly raise the heart rate sometimes to alarming levels [Music] quite scary really it's crazy isn't it yeah really and that was only a little bit of cocaine like what would a big bit do next the truth about drugs on the streets of Colombia the number one source of Britain's cocaine so how much would say like a gram of cocaine cost that would be like seven pounds wow is it good cocaine okay now at least wondering about every airport nobody seems to give a [ __ ] nearly five times as many British adults are consuming cocaine today as they did 20 years ago I think I have I'd say some cool key I'm not sure when yes I've had sex on kick game okay and I'm not gonna be talking about that just go a lot longer a lot longer but the downsides I might not be able to get it all it gets a little bit flattened you last far too long [Music] nearly 30 tons of cocaine are smuggled into Britain every year with a street value of between two and three billion pounds most of it from one country Colombia in 2017 this South American country produced nearly 1 400 tons of cocaine [Music] almost a third of Colombia is in the Amazon rainforest where the humid conditions are perfect for growing the Coca plant whose leaves are the base ingredient of all cocaine making it the center of world production guys we're going to Colombia these casual cocaine users are traveling to Colombia the source of their supply to investigate the impact of their drug taking I think once we're over to Colombia actually ask the people there what it's like to live along so much cocaine and seeing what they have to say it's going to be a eye-opener all right it's a 14 hour 5 000 mile Journey try are you feeling okay tourism is booming in Colombia it now welcomes six and a half million visitors a year two million more than the year before Amber Louis Troy and Chanel are heading to the city of Medellin in the northwest of Columbia internationally known as the epicenter of their cocaine trade Medellin was once labeled the most dangerous city on earth due to the legacy of its most famous former resident Netherland has left Pablo Escobar in the past and is now evolving growing in values and live and live for you love it [Music] Pablo Escobar The Godfather of cocaine [Music] his Reign his Medellin cartel was responsible for 80 of the global market what have I know about Pablo Escobar obviously he was a drug lord he was respected uh in Colombia he's known as a bit of a God I believe that's still the case now before being shot dead by cops in 1993 Escobar was said to be worth 23 billion pounds some of which he spent building hospitals and churches for the people of Medellin even though he was doing bad things and killing people he also did good things with the community as well built hospitals homes it's widely believed he was responsible for the deaths of at least 4 000 civilians police government officials and rival gang members I don't even know how I came to know about Pablo Escobar as a person but I know that I named one of my cars after him once my Polo weird [Music] [Applause] by the late 1980s Escobar controlled 80 percent of the cocaine entering Britain creating a demand that lingers today oh yeah now you can get his face on a t-shirt how cool is that Escobar are they popular is [Applause] a city recovering from its past a 24 increase in tourism here is partly driven by the world's fascination with the Escobar Legacy like it's so obvious like the contrast between the Richer like richer areas in the poorer areas it's just like so there it's completely different to hold yeah not if it looks fully finished does it no in the last five years British tourists have gone up by almost 40 percent part of the appeal is the city's legendary nightlife the first thing that I do when I get out is the people in it obviously like Cafe I think it's going to be a really good night yeah and like it would be interesting to see how like if people offer us yeah we can get anything as well [Music] for 25 years it was legal to carry up to a gram of cocaine here [Applause] people come 2018 Ivan Duque the new Colombian president banned possession completely [Music] but in practice is it still easy to get hold of [Music] [Applause] [Music] Louis and Troy make contact with journalist Oliver schmieg who's been reporting on Colombia's cocaine trade for over 20 years it is definitely easy here it has been used originally from Germany Oliver's been watching the Crackdown closely uh quite a lot of changes right now because the new president changed the law so it was allowed to have a personal possession before now it's forbidden being a tourist will get arrested by police at least you could get you could get to jail for a couple of days I mean we don't know it's a it's a recent law so we don't know how churches will answer so how much would say like a gram of cocaine cost it's between 15 and 20 000 pesos how much is that in British Pounds um that would be like seven pounds wow back home it's like it can be anything up to a hundred pounds yeah what you're going up to do now I'm gonna have a few beers yeah meet some ladies see what happens [Music] after 10 pm Medallion Street sellers come out offering cigarettes and Suites to revelers and sometimes more [Music] um short distance away another local has cocaine for sale yeah everywhere you go it's like a common thing to do in it yeah every street corner you only need to walk 10 meters 15 meters and you probably get off with something at least wondering about everywhere but nobody seems to give a [ __ ] [Applause] it's like the new Crackdown cocaine is still freely available on the streets of Colombia next the violent cost of the cocaine trade will be laid bare when they come face to face with an assassin for the biggest drug cartel in Colombia for a living do you have a picture of your kids that I could see okay guys I step in here you can't ask him for pictures I will die for that [Music] foreign casual cocaine users are in Colombia where the drug cartels are producing more cocaine than ever before and a presidential Crackdown is in force [Music] I think trying to to stop cocaine and Colombia is pretty much impossible that everyone Associates Colombia with cocaine and Pablo Escobar it doesn't seem like a safe place people think that Colombia is a very dangerous country I think it's more of the fear of the unknown I'm very ready to see that very dark side and the devastation that potentially cocaine is causing thank you for months local journalists have been seeking insiders willing to lift the veil of the cocaine trade one individual has now come forward a contract killer known here as a sicario who's prepared to meet two of the British tourists oh I didn't come in first expat security attachment Gordon must run through tonight's protocol the golf club array series organized on group okay they make the money from the money extortion and cocaine trafficking the killers are kidnappers cocaine traffickers with my lap tonight then complacent what he's speaking to the golf Clan are the most powerful cartel in Colombia it's estimated they're responsible for over 40 percent of the cocaine on British streets it's likely Amber and Louis will have consumed golf Clan cocaine if any time Phil atmospherics in a room could be an issue I'll give you a code word the code will be let's go for a beer so that'll mean we're going to extract immediately out of the room I'll have the vehicles went outside and we'll get in the vehicles and go okay perfectly sure let's go the golf Clan often requires its assassins to leave a signature message when they kill stripped corpse implies that the person had unpaid debt a tongue removed from a body suggests the victim talk too much it's no wonder then that the word sicario comes from the Latin to slice I'm nervous to be there yeah I'm starting to feel a little bit on edge now this guy could turn up and just to be fair obviously we've got the briefing but a briefing it's not gonna open someone's putting a gun to you know what I mean dodgy isn't it should we go oh someone who's going straight into our mouth getting him to introduce yeah um so who are you and what do you do for a living how does your boss tell you who to kill and when is do you have a picture of your of your guys I step in here you can't ask him for pictures I will die for that okay I'll be dead the team's local guide Oliver who set the meeting up makes it clear Amber has crossed the line he will be dead and I will be dead as well he's terrified he's [ __ ] terrified because if he gets found out he gets killed as well his wife he's just put his [ __ ] life on the knife seriously put his life on the line to speak to us it's not just getting caught by police that concerns the sicario it's his own bosses would you be in trouble if anybody found out you were here the organizations does the golf Clan run Colombia how did you get involved um in working with the gang did you were you a Hitman straight away or did you do another job within the gang to begin with apart [Music] would it be possible to leave what would happen if she if you did leave yeah of course foreign [Music] [Music] what are your hopes for the future of Colombia is [Music] by taking cocaine on a Friday or Saturday night you are involved in what is going on out in Colombia because if the trade wasn't there then these people wouldn't be doing these things people are getting killed daily for this drug and it's affecting the whole country but back in the UK we're not seeing our home yeah it's definitely made me think [Music] next time oh um do you mind if the guns pointed away from me please there is a possibility that I've probably tried some of the drugs that you've smuggled our four Brits in bed with the Colombian Navy oh there's a speedboat just here on a Deadly Mission to stop cocaine leaving their Shores and deep in the Amazon rainforest they see the toxic chemicals used to make their favorite party drug no wonder why that gives you names it literally looks like sewage [Music] [Music] cocaine long regarded as the drug of choice of the super wealthy but today it's stronger cheaper and more dangerous than ever before with millions of users across the globe don't remember the last time I've been even in a pub people aren't doing it [Music] now four casual cocaine users are going on camera to talk about their cocaine use I'd usually take cocaine either off a key or off my hand itself yeah just much do they know about their drug of choice [Music] interrupt the reality of its Journey from the Amazon rainforest in Colombia what is this battery I said to a worldwide Market [Music] cost of the supply chain the people have to go through all this [Music] and what happens when it becomes more than just a party drug basically I'm lucky to be alive will they still take drugs for fun or will living with the cartels change their minds forever they haven't really got a reason to stop using cocaine I don't see that there's an issue in doing it I think it's going to be a real eye-opener despite it being an illegal drug cocaine production is at its highest rate in history is this going to be my interrogation chair our four cocaine users come from across the UK have never met and are on a potentially dangerous journey across Colombia to discover everything they don't know about the drug first up public relations consultant Amber when I take cocaine energy isn't it it's just like a coffee airport load operator Louis I think the difference in quality between cocaine in the UK and Colombia is probably like the difference between a Ford and a Ferrari model and makeup artist Chanel I don't need cocaine to make my night better it just means that I can just last a lot longer if I don't sniff cocaine I'll be going home at three in the morning if I do sniff it I'll be going home the next day and Supermarket worker Troy the best thing about cocaine is just how easy it is to get hold of and everyone does it sort of thing it's like as a norm to do cocaine on a night out tests have already revealed what's in the cocaine they're snorting all these different types of tablets are like dewormers for animals and how a single line can affect the heart your heart rate shoots right up but now they're in Colombia the main source of the world's cocaine to understand the real cost of their drug taking do your family know what you do for a living um [Music] Colombia is a vast country and it now supplies nearly two-thirds of the western world's cocaine to find out how so much Colombian cocaine makes its way out of the country each year PR consultant Amber and Airport worker Louis are heading to the northern coast yeah I mean we're so far away from home but how do you think it does get there discovering how cocaine is made pretty out in the states Troy and Chanel are in the Amazon rainforest in the country's Deep South [Music] they're meeting a Coca farmer who's agreed to take them to his secret cocaine laboratory far into the jungles awesome yeah it's good 120 000 Colombian Farmers growing coca leaf in the Amazon jungle each producing on average 11 kilograms of cocaine a year [Music] Petro who's this young man on the back of your horse I'm definitely such a city girl [Music] after a two-hour Trek they arrive at The Secret Plantation the coca leaves contain traces of a chemical alkaloid the basis of the drug how many plants do you need to make like say like a gram of cocaine cincuenta distance 50. each Leaf only contains a tiny amount of the substance used in cocaine and Farmers would need a plantation the size of two football pitches to make one kilogram of the drug is it worth it though is in 2015 the Colombian government began offering cash to Farmers to ditch coca leaves and switch to Growing legal crops but the move backfired regular Farmers cottoned on and began planting coca leaves to qualify for the payouts so last year rural Farmers had the biggest crop in the country's history covering an area larger than greater London cocaine world extracting cocaine alkaloid from the leaves requires a toxic mixture is oh my God it smells like cats laughs oh that's like when you bleach your hair as well it's like it's really strong smell of like ammonia cool erase again red yeah the farmer's eight-year-old helps mix the leaves with noxious chemicals [Music] it's barefoot as well and imagine what's up the kid's feet Pedro do you think cocaine's stupid to take is esta the next additive is gasoline used to throw out the cocaine alkaloid from the leaves not very often I get speechless do you find it weird that are cocaine in Britain in most places in the world it's like quite a posh drug it's quite like yeah expensive and you think it would be made in the laboratory but yeah it's made by some guy in a in a little box in a oil container it literally looks like sewage so no wonder why that because you know since no wonder why that gives you no please it's made me a lot more aware of what you're actually putting into your body pretty mind-blown to be honest makes you feel a bit super doesn't it really I'm just curious how they get from that yeah how does it go why next on board with the Colombian Navy patrolling the Caribbean Sea for cocaine Smugglers oh there's a speed boat just here Britain is now the cocaine capital of Europe I do cake at least once a week use the lunch right another long night a little bit and for britons are admitting to being casual users so the first time I took cocaine I was at boarding school trying something when the first time was not we're all drinking smoking as you do at that age and um someone bought out a bag of cocaine I think I was around 17 18 and I didn't even think one second of what I was doing so in the same way that you have your first drink or you have your first cigarette I had my first line of coke I was 13 when I first tried cocaine it was just I'll try it my mates are trying it let's have a goal and yeah it did end up being a good time to be honest [Music] our four are in Colombia where the vast majority of the world's cocaine comes from in the South Troy and Chanel are discovering how primitive and toxic its production is no wonder why that gives you no please [Music] it seems a far cry from the clean white powder they are partying on in the UK what what is this agua este is battery acid in there oh my God I thought they start that stuff that was bad when he when he walked out the old battery acid bottle I was just like hey wait a second because I thought the gasoline was bad enough but when he added that in I was just like Jesus Christ Pedro is siphoning off the cocaine-infused water from the bottom of the barrel if he's caught he faces 20 years in prison last year the authorities destroyed over 4 000 Labs like Pedros less than four percent of the estimated total how much joking you will get out of what you've done today how much will you get for this okay 45 so you know how much we pay for a gram at home no per gram it's a hundred pounds for every 100 pounds spent on cocaine internationally Farmers like Pedro receive less than 50 pence the rest of the money will go to the cartel Smugglers and dealers it's very confusing you don't you don't really know what to think and like where you stand and stuff because yeah it's it's painting a bigger picture than just some it's just black and white Pedro is leading Troy and Chanel to his family home let's see boiling heart he cooks his cocaine base on the same stove they make the family dinner on [Music] this brown liquid will eventually become 90 grams of cocaine worth up to 9 000 pounds on the streets of Europe tastes like you like it yeah my mouth is numb Pedro will sell his cocaine base to the largest cartel in Colombia the golf Clan for someone just to piss at their nose to turn it into a white powder the cartel will dissolve the base in solvents and apply heat to evaporate the chemicals before it's pressed into blocks and smuggled to affluent countries like Britain today is definitely had a massive impact on the way that I now look at cocaine um massively in the fact that he makes barely nothing and people that sell it back in the UK is ready when he's the one doing all the hard work yeah it's like risking his own life risking his family's life but also to give his family a lie yeah it's it's mental [Music] Amber and Louis have arrived in Turbo a port town on the Caribbean coast in the far north of Columbia it's here in Turbo that cocaine leaves the country via a major International Supply route I think meeting people in the cocaine industry out in Colombia I don't think they're going to be bad people I think the majority of them will be doing it for survival I never like to judge people on what they do or on face value it's always interesting to find out why because everyone has a story the powerful golf Clan controls many of the international routes Louis is meeting a member of the cartel who uses a speed boat to transport cocaine it was a hog see you later in an attempt to outsmart the authorities Colombian traffickers are increasingly stashing cocaine in container ships it's a tactic that is proving highly effective it's just interesting not obviously sat in the middle of nowhere that people do actually export cocaine from this very place back to the UK it's just mind-blowing really big big ocean I do feel comfortable yeah you never know who's going to turn up who they're going to be this must be our guy with the cartels frequently changing their smuggling tactics divulging the smallest operational detail would be unforgivable in the eyes of Smuggler Dario's cartel bosses Colombian Navy are the final defense in the battle to stop the golf Clan from exporting the drug Amber is due to accompany them on a patrol in late 2017 officers here captured 13 tons of pure cocaine in a single day the largest Hall in the country's history it was hidden in hundreds of boxes of bananas one of Colombia's main legal exports Britain's SAS border force and National Crime agency have been training and working with Colombia's Armed Forces for almost three decades to thwart the flow of cocaine yes see Amber Moon is the Navy has intercepted 6 4 metric metric tons of product in the last year on patrol missions like this they look for boats just like the one Louis is on a boat similar to this size how much cocaine would you be able to to fit on a okay um how is it packed is the police our Navy never thought of upgrading their boats to get a boat inside foreign [Music] getting cocaine out of Colombia is a dangerous task and being seen with a camera crew raises suspicion is I thought I was the police does your family know that you do this opportunity so when you intercept the golf Clan their boats who do they fight back about cocaine it's a party drug on a Friday night they have some drinks have some cocaine how do you feel about that Europa the colonel has spotted a likely Target it's a transport vessel it's cargo bananas what's going on here we're going to look on the boat or yeah yeah okay stop and search operations like this happen daily and they're like trying to find a needle in a haystack definitely starting to get a bit of adrenaline and the nerves are going a little bit they're looking for their documentation now I think to make sure they are who they say they are foreign there is a possibility that I've probably tried some of the the drugs that you've smuggled the government I have drugs whether it's from your department I don't know but I've Got Friends personally no money and they're getting into big debts because of it does that not bother you your help or causing towards that is foreign Splatoon may not have uncovered any cocaine today but last year the bind Armed Forces seized 395 metric tons even all of the Navy guys there's only so much you can keep an eye on clearly if one of the Navy guys was killed not that long ago definitely starting to understand the seriousness of this sort of this War I guess [Music] the risks taken by the cartel to export cocaine and the efforts made by the Navy to stem the flow of the drug have prompted Louis and Amber to re-evaluate their preconceptions about the War on Drugs the Colonel's take on it was you know they're all bad guys like you've got to catch them because they're doing such bad things I kind of felt sorry for a ski Boatman somebody's got to go out and deliver drugs by a boat someone's got to feed the family I mean there's always a choice of doing it or not doing it but I don't know maybe not though but I guess such a complex situation I think the truth is just somewhere in the middle [Music] the truth is that millions of ordinary Colombians have been caught in the middle of a cocaine War for decades I'd love to go through all this for recreational cocaine users are on a journey to discover the truth behind their favorite drug it's just a little icing on the cake when you're having a night out keep you going all night how else do you buy for that long gram for gram cocaine is the most expensive commonly used drug in the world [Music] if people knew that the people that do cocaine aren't you know your back alley prostitutes in your junkies and stuff like that people would be a lot more willing and open to talk about it so many people are doing it why would you not feel comfortable talking about it people go out on the weekends and get absolutely smashed on alcohol that's it was that because it's legal I suppose that must be why it is because it's it's illegal these casual users are back in the city of Medellin Colombia the former home of cocaine Baron Pablo Escobar when it held the unsavory distinction of being the murder capital of the world [Applause] oh but times have changed and the city is enjoying tumbling crime rates and thriving tourism though away from the skyscrapers of downtown cocaine gangs still Loom large over Medellin slums andano runs a charity in a notorious neighborhood called manrique one of the cartel controlled slums taking the team off the tourist Trail and Into the Heart of that slump it definitely looked like the higher we're going up the mountain the poorer it's getting by the looks Colombian cartels don't just make and sell cocaine in 2017 alone 70 000 men women and children were trafficked into forced labor and many into prostitution Institution for Women around these areas is sexuality being put into something like that is yes it's quite it's quite sad Oscar's charity Works to try and keep the neighborhood's children away from the cocaine gangs where is it that you're taking us exactly poverty and the gangs have plenty of cash to offer would-be recruits kids as young as 10 are targeted there is a huge sense of community and I out to make sure that people are safe and stuff it's nice it's you feel very safe and very welcome you don't feel like you're not allowed to be here [Music] this is a sanctuary for 125 children who live in the neighborhood it's one of the few places they can play freely safe from the reach of the gangs living around this area do you ever get scared you do get scared because of guns do you have to go quite careful with what you do around there [Music] watching over the children are two teenagers from the neighborhood Who The Gangs tried but failed to recruit so how do you find living in this area [Music] how do you get into the gangs [Music] how many children here do you think roughly are going to end up in with the guns [Music] opportunity it just goes to show that cocaine is not just sniffing having a good time there's also this whole this whole this whole back story when you're doing it most people wouldn't even consider quite upsetting sort of thing it's just sorry um yeah to know that 75 of those kids could possibly end up in the drug game and the girls what they could even most touchy though is horrific it's horrible a cartel that runs this neighborhood and recruits its children it's called the oficina the invigado founded as an enforcement arm of Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel [Music] Chanel and Troy have been granted a rare meeting with two members of this cartel who themselves were recruited as children and have since risen through the ranks security guard Ivan is a retired anti-narcotics agent who has seen how the oficina DI invigado used cocaine cash to fund their brutal operation [Music] a foreign yeah I'm just just hoping it goes smoothly but at the same time a bit like once more goes tits up what's gonna happen like it could have hope that you can run fast yeah Troy will talk to a high-ranking cartel leader while Chanel will meet with one of their assassins foreign is she coming over do I go over [Music] hello my channel having seen the children in the sanctuary Chanel wants to know how young the Assassin was when she was forced into a life of crime how long have you been doing this yeah wow [Music] foreign so how pure is the cocaine this is when was the last time that you you took a hit out on someone foreign have you taken out anyone that you've been like close to before like family or anything see more it's a little bit intense kill or be killed this is The Bleak future awaiting many of Colombia's young like those in Oscar's sanctuary as Pablo Escobar famously put it many will be forced to take the cocaine cartel silver or take their lead in the last six decades nearly 18 000 children have been recruited to fight in the cocaine Wars do you ever get caught up in um gang wars [Music] scary stuff are there any rules to being a hit woman um hombres who is I guess you got a lot to lose if it all goes wrong foreign for the children forced into this way of life the future is bleak when she said that she killed a pregnant woman that was what can you say really um obviously it's disgusting I wouldn't like to be in his shoes to be honest even though he's making loads of money and stuff but the lifestyle he lives is pretty scary in my my perspective if there weren't cartels running the streets of Colombia people like her wouldn't exist she would have a completely different career route she'd turned her pain into Power instead of using it to take people's lives sure but um after that interview was a big sigh relief was like came out alive while happy with that after leaving the meeting Troy begins to experience severe chest pains so basically at the moment um we're off to hospital it just got really sharp pain when they've started breathing in my chest and I've had um pneumothorax which is a collapse with the collapse of the lung but I'm really hoping this I haven't got collapsed on when you sniff it cocaine would be one of the causes from cat songs I've still been taking cocaine but yeah a bit bit stupid of me to be honest if Troy's worst fears are realized and he suffered a collapsed lung again it will spell the end of his journey to discover the truth about cocaine fingers crossed hopefully it will be just muscle pains or something while Troy is examined Amber and Louis are traveling to a downtrodden neighborhood in the center of town it's gained a reputation as the epicenter of cocaine Addiction in Medellin [Music] we see at all people sniffing whole cable I think in these type of places it's not just going to be stiff and it's probably injecting it smoking it I kind of haven't thought about that whole the addiction side of it yeah I could imagine being addicted to it they're here to meet Juan David Toro Duarte who works as a mediator between residents and the cartel that controls this area [Music] traffic report many of the residents here live in dilapidated hostels owned by the cocaine gangs failure to pay rent daily can be fatal he wants to introduce Amber and Louis to one of the tenants six years ago Luz was a wealthy business owner living in an affluent part of Medellin but when a different cocaine gang moved into her area she was forced to leave her possessions and life behind [Music] us Mario must be so difficult to live in a place like this [Music] is what happens if you don't pay the rent foreign people have to go through all this you say oh however we don't have it like any worries loose is just one of seven million Colombians who've had to flee from their homes due in part to the cocaine trade and the global thirst for a party drug [Music] absolutely nothing I can compare to what she's been through obviously with some of the things she said as well was difficult to take earlier I think at home as well uh okay guys sorry we've got to go okay we've got to go gotta get in the van Gogh the security team have spotted gang members too close for comfort and Amber and Louis now realize the total power the cartel have over so many Colombian communities all right [Music] four recreational cocaine users are discovering the reality of the illegal drug trade my views on decriminalizing cocaine is that it should happen it's each to their own and if you want to do drugs then you should be allowed to do drugs stop a lot of people hiding in the shadows and being scared personally I think uh cocaine should stay the way it is obviously I've seen people in the past who've been damaged off it so legalize and I don't see how it would help anybody if you give someone the option they can do it if they want to do it you may even find that there's more people that won't want to do it because it's not as much of a taboo [Music] Supermarket worker Troy has been in hospital with severe chest pains and is worried that his lung has collapsed the doctor has just given him the prognosis they said all good good news nothing wrong with me the thing is muscle spasm to do to have a bit of a rest they said the doctor asked if I taken any cocaine I know I was I said no and you said that if I didn't take cocaine that would be one of the reasons for me to have a collapsed lung but I didn't so that's a good sign it's always there all right how are you feeling yeah so you're all good yeah I'm all good good to go good to go [Music] oh back on the Pablo Escobar tourist Trail our team visit the street art which has transformed what was once one of the most dangerous places on Earth but for security guard Evan the violent memories are still very real you're right mate is sarento buen amigo [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign are you sure wow [Music] good man thank you I'm gonna treasure it forever I really am means a lot means a lot when I go out and the UK in this and like I wouldn't have thought about any of this in my life sort of thing and the fact that just just cocaine is cause Devastation to Avon and loads of other people it's it makes you think it's going to make me think twice about doing cocaine next time how the influx of high-strength Colombian cocaine is overwhelming Britain Hello send me the postcode I'll give you an ETA so that's how it works cocaine is a very very very intense blood vessel constrictor when was the last time you know a couple times a week we had a seizure earlier on this year of nearly a ton of cocaine that would come into Tilbury docks it started off at around a couple of grams a day about a week before I came into here I was three and a half days up and I'd done 25. don't play with your life [Music] [Music] cocaine long regarded as the drug of choice of the super wealthy but today it's stronger cheaper and more dangerous than ever before with millions of users across the globe don't remember the last time I've been even in a pub people aren't doing it [Music] now four casual cocaine users are going on camera to talk about their cocaine use I'd usually take cocaine either off a key or off my hand itself yeah just how much do they know about their drug of choice [Music] the reality of its Journey from the Amazon rainforest in Colombia what is this battery I said to a worldwide Market [Music] cost of the supply chain the people have to go [Music] over and what happens when it becomes more than just a party drug basically I'm lucky to be alive will they still take drugs for fun or will living with the cartels change their minds forever I haven't really got a reason to stop using cocaine I don't see that there's an issue in doing it I think it's going to be a real eye-opener foreign despite it being an illegal drug cocaine production is at its highest rate in history our four casual cocaine users Were Strangers brought together from across the UK first public relations consultant Amber the majority of the time when it comes to doing coke it will be friends who do the deed of the picking up I've done it once or twice I've always dressed as a chicken airport load operator Louis working in an airport itself uh obviously you see young groups of girls Lads going out to IB for wherever they might be going I've seen people taking cocaine in the airport itself in the toilets modeling makeup artist Chanel one of my more interesting nights that I've had out on it was a time that me and my best friend we went on a double date to The Lion King so we're at singing and dancing along and then obviously it's very quiet in a theater so these people are looking at us like it's like just because you don't know the dance moves don't hate on us and Supermarket worker Troy the best thing about cocaine is just how easy it is to get hold of and everyone does it sort of thing it's like as a norm to do cocaine on a night out [Music] so far they've learned the cocaine on Britain's streets is now four times stronger than 10 years ago 78 wow that's impressive I was thinking it'd be five ten percent max and in Colombia the world's number one supplier of cocaine they discovered more was being produced now than at any other time in its history you know how much we pay for a gram at home no it's a hundred pound Rico with the cartels exporting record amounts by air by land and by sea how much cocaine would you be able to fit on it and they realize the pain the cocaine war is causing by remembering a fallen soldier are you sure just one of 260 000 Colombians killed in the name of cocaine wow have to think about these things there is a much bigger picture going on than just being in the pub on a Friday night [Music] after two weeks in Colombia they're now back home to investigate firsthand what's happening on the streets what effect is this new super strength cocaine having on the country and the people who take it [Music] today Amber is in London and Troy in Bristol all I've heard is I don't know if it's accurate or not but most 20 pound notes have some trace the drug and it's usually cocaine both have cocaine testing swabs used by Customs officers around the world people often take cocaine by snorting the drug through a rolled up banknote microscopic traces can be left in the creases in its life a 20-pound note will be passed between 2 300 people will any of those previous owners have used the note to snort cocaine you're right hello um don't suppose you wouldn't mind me testing one of your 25 notes to you no none at all the swabs can detect trapped particles that are 1 000 times smaller than visible to the human eye do you have a Tony Ponder on you as long as you don't have to hand my own 20 pound note in for evidence two lines however faint indicate possible presence of cocaine that's quite surprising because you never think that you know a study by the forensic science service estimated that within two weeks of entering circulation every single banknote in Britain will be contaminated with the drug [Music] s yes positive for cocaine but you weren't expecting this today surprising I assure you I'm innocent and I believe that his positive a line will show up on this left-hand side we may have just found one of the first banknotes in London that hasn't tested positive okay have you just got it out of an ATM that's probably currency exchange office in Melbourne Australia the only banknote that tested negative was a brand new one issued on the other side of the world that's one of the fresh ones and it's clean banknotes aren't the only Everyday item used to take cocaine credit cards are often used to prepare it for snorting and any surfaces they touch may become contaminated yeah positive [Music] just shows that it is actually everywhere [Music] 38 000 people pass through London's Westminster Underground Station a day and the contactless card readers have tested positive I am genuinely shocked some users are so brazen [Music] positive again they'll even rack up lines just a few hundred meters from the houses of Parliament if it's at Parliament Square in a phone box it's gonna be it's got to be everywhere Britain is experiencing a cocaine epidemic and masterminding the country's response is the National Crime agency Amber has been granted a meeting with the manager of operations Vince O'Brien so we work closely with Partners internationally to tackle The Gangs looking to supply cocaine into this country and to disrupt those gangs in the most efficient and effective way so over the last 12 months we've had seizures of over two tons of cocaine in small vessels off the south of England [Music] most of the Colombian cocaine arrives here by sea via Europe in total The Authority seized five and a half metric tons of the drug in 2016. the following year seizures were down almost 40 percent we don't measure our success in terms of how much cocaine we seize we measure our success in terms of the organized criminal gangs that we're disrupting and making sure that we do that effectively it means working with Partners to help tackle demand for drugs in the first place and demand is skyrocketing five times more people in Britain use cocaine now than 20 years ago we have a demand for cocaine and that brings with it a significant amount of criminality and harm and I think the thing that's been particularly prominent this year is the impact of serious violence on our streets we've had Rising amounts of knife crime and Firearms discharges and significant elements of that are linked to gangs competing for drug Supply in a violent way every single line of Acadian comes with significant levels of harm and exploitation it's the organized criminals you know the underworld of this is just shocking to be honest it's not just you as the end user having a good night out there's so much more going on there is an underworld groups that are highly organized and Incredibly secretive they rarely lift the veil on their illegal operations until now are you nervous about me anymore I'm a little bit anxious because I don't have a clue where we are one individual with Insider knowledge of the cocaine trade has agreed to meet Louis and Chanel at 2 am in a secluded location on the coast like so he could have people like waiting around and stuff and like we'd be been on the wiser and this is the place where I'm actually quite nervous now in 2017 cocaine was the most commonly seized Class A drug with border Force NCA and police capturing 15 000 shipments yeah I think he's uh yeah there he is maximum penalty for drug trafficking cocaine is life imprisonment [Music] one million people in Britain use cocaine but only 11 000 a year are prosecuted for possession I get quite conscious about carrying cocaine around big cities like Bristol now I never worry about getting stops at search by the police to be honest I think if he was to get caught with cocaine on the street and I would probably just take it off you and say on your way oh God I'm gonna get stopped all the time now aren't I I'm gonna get locked up and everything where do my girlfriends tend to hide their cocaine leave that one up to the imagination [Music] this is the guy at an anonymous location airport load operator Louis and model and makeup artist Chanel are meeting a vital Link in the cocaine supply chain nice to meet you nice to meet you so what exactly is it is it you do uh important yeah when was the last time you brought something in it comes in a couple times a week oh Christ a couple of times a week yeah wow I mean you get the massive shipments once every three to six months right but you get good shipments commonly regularly yeah I mean get back say forensically a week this is a actually off the boat I mean that's why the P was a good choice because if there's things chocolate amount this is a good weekend you get a little [ __ ] oh I don't feel yeah what weight is that uh just under half a key because obviously we just had a few little cheeky things but you know just okay he's 50 off of it 30 to 35 35 um so how much would you buy that for I wouldn't tell you because um you know then people will just start saying you want to be a cheaper than what I'm giving people this way it's um a lot cheaper than what I'm doing like a lot put it put it this way um when I say okay I can buy um I'll send it to someone each term 50 Grand wow yeah for a key yeah but what they do they put mix it into three yeah and they said it 36 each yeah so they turned one into three adding other white powders to cocaine like lactose caffeine and animal dewormer allow suppliers and dealers to double their profits but with the drug in plentiful Supply bulking out is happening less and less what country is it you're importing it from Mark an extern from Spain yeah but he gets it from Colombia wow I'm at this end he's at that end there are another end I'm one of many fishes important how many people do you reckon thousands thousands thousands thousands thousands thousands at least minimum minimum there are many ways to put it in yeah sometimes through cars containers to only get big bolts yeah and what they do is they swim swim under the big bolts yeah and weld it on shut up yeah that's one of the best way to get it because even when the ball gets searched where is it yeah yeah exactly but there's usually thousands or hundreds of containers on a big massive bowl and um there are many ways to put it in like dog food that was a good one yeah four big containers of dog food and in the dog food it was cocaine well actually in dog food yeah in the dog food dried food yeah Kings of Colton inside wrapped in yeah and that's all in repackaged up and now put one 3.4 metric tons of cocaine were seized by the authorities last year just 12 percent of the amount that makes it onto the street is it getting easier or is it getting harder oh yeah easy it's easy easier I swear down it's getting easier and easier and easier do you know why because more people are willing to risk for a diamond or two to get it over obviously don't replace again yeah let's wrap this up Smuggler decides the police in the area are just getting too close for comfort and leaves [Music] that was crazy we said there's a lot of police around me over so obviously he's always on the lookout yeah but like he said he'll just Chuck it over over the scene then there's probably no chance of catching him then just not even just seeing somebody without him out he's just crazy nuts especially when he break it open and it just went everywhere yeah yeah he's carrying carrying around 35 underwear for his [ __ ] back pocket yeah what's he got what's he got coming in on the bolts yeah once over the Border cocaine will pass through a network of criminal gangs each paying more and more for the product a kilogram of the drug costs around 2 000 pounds in Colombia once it's broken up and sold to punters on the street it can fetch up to one hundred thousand despite it being an illegal drug cocaine production is at its highest rate in history because it's so easy to get hold of you can send a text and you've got someone on your doorstep with cocaine in half an hour an hour I think the dealers get into dealing cocaine is the money the lifestyle the girls it's easy money and it's a lot of money [Music] in London alone over 280 separate gangs sell cocaine wholesale from undercover locations known as trap houses somewhere in London I don't know where I've been told to put on these blindfolds um a dealer has agreed to be interviewed at his South London trap house the driver is known and trusted by the gang but Louis Amber and the crew must arrive blindfolded so the Trap House's location can remain Secret the sort of stuff that makes you a bit edgy because obviously you don't know where you are I don't know what's going on it was very uncomfortable [Music] you can take off your blindfolds that was a mother experience nice to meet you cool hi Amber this Anonymous flat is one of potentially hundreds across the country where imported cocaine is weighed out into small quantities of a gram or less do you keep quite a lot of gear here I suppose no this is this for several food from you have another place for holding food I bet you know so you don't want all your eggs in one basket yeah of course so do people who live here as well people can live in a chat house yeah could be somewhere that you rent right it could be like a girlfriend's house is this a place that you feel that you feel safe I know yeah it's gonna make you right yeah dealer is picking up one gram of cocaine for 50 pounds to be sold onto partygoers just like Louis and Amber for 100 pounds what do you get it to sell on definitely yeah is it every weekend every three days latest figures show 5 000 dealers were caught and prosecuted in a year many more will be making deliveries every night so yeah on an average night Albany would you say yourself very summertime is usually busy when the England game or the rugby match is on it's a busy time but what four to five grand you know but it does very that's a good weekend hello what's going on bro also of you see in a bit do you cut stuff here I've got loyal customers and they do want that real stuff you know they call it the fire so I tried to give it to them as pure as possible it could be caught when I receive it yeah yeah but I don't I don't step on it again a record influx of cheap cocaine from Colombia means low-level dealers are using less cutting agents to bulk out their product making cocaine the strongest it's been since records began in the chain how far removed are you from Colombia I'm not trying to be Pablo Escobar and that you know my people are not the the main guys from Colombia it probably does go from about two or three people and that you know I just know that what I buy or what I pay for has to be the right quality for what I'm doing see like what you do is a really bad thing that you you're all bad guys I enjoy it now you see that I enjoyable because I'm providing the service so I feel like I'm doing a good thing I turn up to that little house party isn't that yeah but the girls love it now I'll come and get the party started yeah yeah and when I turn off that places and I've got the product I've got to see yeah like I am the man [Music] I think if all of it was like that guy we met then every one of your get along but obviously a lot of the street dealers it turn into violence and there's a lot more to it than just this guy next stronger cocaine means addiction is through the roof I wish I never took that first hit it was very innocent don't play with your life the last five years have seen a 140 increase in cocaine users being admitted to hospital the worst thing about cocaine is the next day we were trying to knock ourselves out to sleep so we thought we'd make us laugh but that just made things ten times worse lesson learned from that I can't say I've ever had a hungover off uh taking hulky my worst experience on cocaine would be when I myself actually over taste um it wasn't even that much doing it like usual and my mate asked if you could pinch the line and I was just like yeah I'll Whack Him so I was like well I mean I might as well write myself one it was basically a massive panic attack so it wasn't as worse as overdose as you can get but the doctors said it was to do with the cocaine I was taking thank you in the last decade cocaine has quadrupled in strength specialist treatment centers have also seen a 25 rise in first-time addiction admissions in 2018 over 30 000 users passed through rehab centers I don't think personally I would ever be on the path to addiction when it comes to cocaine if I've not got cocaine on a night out I'm not gonna not have a good night I do kind of worry one day I could become addicted like if my mum and dad died or like if something really bad happened in my life where I might resort to drugs to solve things but I'm hoping that that's not gonna happen Troy Amber Chanel and Louis are on their way to Broadway Lodge pioneering Rehabilitation Center how are you guys feeling about today a little bit nervous you know but I don't really know what to expect I'd like to see how you can get addicted to Gold game well obviously I've seen it in the past and we're going to visit people who are obviously have been addicted to it [Music] 70s Broadway Lodge has helped over 15 000 patients battle addiction they treat government-funded and private clients a two-week detox will cost four thousand pounds while a 12-week rehabilitation would cost around nineteen thousand pounds [Music] Marcel how are you feeling yeah I'm anxious a little I wonder why you guys Marcel is one of 370 patients this year he's now completed six weeks of treatment for cocaine addiction so what would be a threat for a relapse a party is how did you know this there you go ladies yeah okay true okay before he came here 35 year old Marcel was an account manager for an energy company so you don't mind me asking where did your story with cocaine start well I love going out from my 60s I was every weekend going to the city I was 23 and I just thought I I want to try it and friends around me they added and they gave me a little bit of cocaine I had a good job and I had a savings accounts but about 20 000 Euros wow yeah the things were looking good I bought it for 20 euros a half a gram uh at a certain stage I I needed one gram so that was 40 or 50 euros well and that was in the beginning no problem finally it was three grams a day what I did and that's really killing you physically also yeah but three grams a day so now I'm 35 sitting here in a rehab center I have two friends left of a network of 30. I will never have to search your life as I had before I will not having a drink anymore really yeah because I've been too far in my addiction yeah the way I take cocaine it's probably like it's presume how you started off just doing a bit on the weekend with my mates going to events and stuff so what's your take on that just not do it I wish I never took that first hit it was very innocent I really think is it necessary to do it do I want to take it risk to take my life to give that life to an injection don't play with your life I respect the fact that myself is willing and to sacrifice like sacrifice things in his life to overcome what cocaine has done to him the fact that I could lose my friends and have to quit out aspects of my social life at partying and stuff [Music] Chrissy was once an addict herself but for the last 20 years she's been a counselor helping others to see the harm drugs can cause people talk a lot about rock bottom everybody has their own rock bottom you know it will be different so it's a person comes here when they've had enough they want to change their life [Music] so obviously we me and the rest of the guys admitted openly that we do or have taken cocaine in the past how risky do you think that is the recreational cocaine side of things you know there's nobody in there in Broadway Lodge at this moment whoever thought they would be an object and have an addiction and everybody I think starts off socially doing something but if something's causing you or other people harm you have a problem and a lot of the time if you have the addictive personality you won't notice now I've always said I don't have an addictive personality but as you've just said you actually don't know if you've got an addictive personality until you've got it and at that point there's no reversing it so I guess what you're doing is you're playing Russian roulette with your life that's such a like mad way of putting it yeah that Russian Roulette analogy is really sitting with me addiction can take hold of anybody and seeing Marcel sat there today you just wouldn't think like he looks so healthy and he's so charming and friendly and if anybody's having any doubt in their mind as to whether they've maybe got a problem or you probably do oh she wouldn't be thinking that to me I don't even see what the bloody point of taking cocaine is earning more really [Music] will was married with one child and working as a Barman he started using cocaine socially then took more and more to deal with the late night shifts but has since made a full recovery cocaine really was the primary thing for me I kind of used and abused it for about 18 years every single day every single day I mean I've been kicked out of my house by my wife I had a one-year-old son who I could see my family weren't interested in me so I was pretty much living out of my car what was it he was doing that on a daily basis it started off at around a couple of grams a day about a week before I came into here I was three and a half days up and I'd done 25 and at that point well basically I'm lucky to be alive put it that way to actually have the courage to come here and even stay here you're an adult he's just like a massive thing like you looking at you you just look like a genuine guy who's like you do honestly like it's it's hard to believe there is no kind of stereotype really I had it in my head that there was before I came here be honest and you walk in the door and you kind of judge people but this place teaches you that you should never really do that um it's a disease at the end of the day then it can affect absolutely anybody thank you obviously it does hit a hole that person I don't think I could find myself in that position where I was addicted but you never know anybody can can be addicted in the end Alan is a counselor who's invited Chanel to talk she's been opening up about her relationship with cocaine one of the things we talk about a lot here is that the root of my problems with drugs and alcohol is I do what I want to do when I want to do with it and if anybody has a problem with it I'll get it yeah I just want to describe how that made you feel and why it just makes you feel a bit selfish to be honest um that as much as you think is my life I'm going to live at how I please you'll say like okay you also do need to take some sort of consideration to to those around you I was about 13 when I first tried cocaine I used to literally just do cocaine in a park or behind my school over the years I've learned to put blinkers on and block out what's going on around me sometimes there's that saying the truth hurts oh yeah and I recognize in that moment that there's a part of me perhaps that might be being selfish yeah completely agree with you but then I'm also that person where I don't like to be I don't like to I will not judge people so I don't like to be judged I've always been a bit of an outcast I've never really fit in anywhere um I'd say I was very quiet I was pushed around a lot I was bullied a lot did you have a difficult childhood then yeah well I grew up it was like only a couple of families that had only ethnic background so I grew up with like a lot of racial abuse and stuff and just a lot of bullying growing up foreign [Music] people trying to put like [ __ ] out on like you and your sister and stuff and spit at you and that and call you like telling you to like back to Africa and stuff like that obviously it's not really ideal so will you go away from after all of this experience and take the space to reflect on it oh yeah of course of course and I like to self-reflect [Music] well obviously I got to think about um just taking it in really I think I don't have an issue with cocaine at all not in the slightest um but it's just that sitting down with myself and talking and thinking if you don't actually need a way that you even gonna take it just gigs on the odd occasions the point no prolonged cocaine use comes with many risks one of which is severe damage to the nose Louis is visiting a specialist nose reconstruction clinic in Amsterdam where many British patients go after exhausting options available on the National Health Service here surgeon Dr Callum Ferris deals with all kinds of nasal problems including some of Europe's Most severe cases of cocaine abuse okay 26 year old Louis has over 10 000 followers on Instagram and is a man who looks after his body he's here to learn how extreme cocaine use can affect one's appearance I'd suppose that he does worry me about taking uh cocaine especially when in the future it could damage you something what I don't know cocaine is a very very very intense blood vessel constrictor so it constricts the blood supply right and that starves the cartilage of nutrients in the intervening cartilage can then die yeah and you end up developing a whole and that's what we call perforation a hole from one side of the nasal cavity to the other side so this is another view of a perforation you can see that the cocaine has eroded that hole God it's quite a big hole well we would say that this is actually quite a small Corporation that's probably about it's probably about one and a half to two centimeters but then you can get greater than three centimeters small septal perforations can be repaired for eight thousand pounds using cartilage grafted from the ear larger holes can cause the nose to collapse requiring three or four operations using rib cartilage and skin grafts costing up to thirty thousand pounds how often or how long would you have to use cocaine to to get some sort of hole chronic use on a regular basis you know over several several years there is a risk of developing you know a perforation and that perforation can enlarge chronic cocaine use can also cause saddle nose deformity this occurs when the nasal septum is too weak to support the mid portion of the nose and it caves in Dr Faris has produced a model of what Louie's nose could look like if he fell into cocaine addiction this is a 3D printed model and what you can see here is that the tip is coming up wow and when you pressed on the nose the nose would be totally soft to be able to press it all the way down that's crazy would you struggle to breathe at this point yes I hope it never looks like that he's just like a shocker that it can actually get to that stage where he knows he's falling off [Music] next the tragic toll super strength cocaine is having on families every single day it hurts I wouldn't wish this on anyone my mum's not really fussed about me taking Coke be honest my mum she's been there she's done it there's nothing I can do that she hasn't already done my parents are completely against me taking it anybody taking it no no no everything's bad for you my mom's obviously concerned about me taking cocaine and everything but I think she prefers that I tell her what I do instead of hiding it my mum knows that I've got my head screwed on she trusts me if I was starting to go downhill she will put her foot in the door and stop me from doing it foreign last year over 400 families suffered the catastrophic consequences of cocaine use [Music] Amber and Troy are meeting Hayley to hear how super strength cocaine changed her family's lives forever [Music] nice to meet you nice to meet you yeah yeah Welcome to My Little Garage yeah wow yeah yeah so it belonged to my brother he always had like a keen interest in cars there was always a car on the front garden you know like in bits and you know I think it was his happy place always Buzzy and people knew they could go to Ashley so what happened to Ashley one Sunday morning he overdosed on cocaine he popped up here in the morning and and died [Music] like Amber and Troy Ashley was a casual cocaine user who used to have a few lines with friends on the occasional night out over time he'd take more in 2016 age 33 he took one line too many and his heart stopped you still can't process cocaine that killed him which is crazy no one knew how much cocaine Ashley had taken the morning of his death it's believed the drug had built up in his system over a few days and just a small amount then pushed his blood toxicity to a fatal level nobody dies of it that's what we all think that's definitely what I thought and it was pure overdose I wouldn't wish this on anyone every single day it hurts [Music] Ashley also left behind his fiancee their five-year-old son and his fiancee's 12 year old daughter Ashley's mum Jane still can't believe he's gone he loved cars so that was the little so happy doesn't he look at him yeah yeah in here little boy looking after his sister yeah yeah it's just so beautiful yeah only God could help now because well no human being could ever yes it's okay I can't remember I can't imagine you just can't imagine and over something so stupid I'm sorry it's okay [Music] in 20 years there's been a tragic rise of fifteen hundred percent in cocaine-related deaths hundreds more families torn apart each year at the end of all this after all you've seen and heard has it made you think twice see in the hearts of the struggles it's put you guys through the emotion I don't want my mama to feel the way you guys did and I think the fact that coat can do that so like Randomness it's like a lottery is definitely yeah cut me off I hope so because it is heart-wrenching [Music] [Music] I love my mom she's probably like the best person I know she's just got a nice heart and does the right thing every time sort of thing she always says what to say yeah I like my mom [Music] it's quite selfish in a way of me taking cocaine now now I've realized this the fact that cocaine did that to a family [Music] maybe not I love YouTube how much would like a gram of cocaine cost that would be like seven pounds wow one month ago Amber Louis Chanel and Troy were happy to take cocaine without a second thought there's probably nothing out there that made me change my mind about doing cocaine now they've seen for themselves the harm cocaine can do to the human body it actually started to cause their skin to rot [Music] Colombia they they the drug was controlled by murderous cartels met the innocent kids the gang's recruit to fight in the cocaine War how many children here do you think are gonna end up in with the gang and felt the pain caused when children kill in the name of cocaine when Ivan gave me the dog tags of his friends that died and seeing him break down like that the fact that happened because of cocaine that meant a lot the thing what's made me think is seeing the people who are recovering I've been kicked out of my house but my wife I had a one-year-old son who I could see my family weren't interested in me obviously these people have never started the drug to end up as an addict and that being so close to home who knows where he could end up this experience has been life-changing the people have to go through all this I think I was very blind too what is actually going on in the world [Music] the thing that made me think twice about taking cocaine was definitely making it in the jungle that was just on a whole nother level after all they've seen and heard will they still do drugs for fun with no harm done I'm not going to continue taking cocaine no at this very point in time I'm fully off cocaine definitely it's just not something that I want I want to be involved in anymore it certainly made me think about what it is I'm doing and not to be so careless about what it is what I'm doing I don't intend on taking cocaine again but never say never obviously on a night out and out the lads and things like that I don't want to lie to myself if I eventually do do it [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 87,653

Keywords: Real Stories, South American cartels, addiction recovery resources, addiction treatment, cocaine crisis, cocaine production, cocaine trafficking routes, criminal underworld, drug abuse effects, drug abuse impact, drug abuse prevention, drug overdose prevention, drug smuggling routes, drug treatment programs, drug war, drug-related crime, fighting the war on drugs, illegal substances trade, narco documentaries, street drugs, substance misuse

Id: eaQS6r_sBI0

Length: 134min 13sec (8053 seconds)

Published: Sat May 06 2023