Making cocaine in the Amazon - Bruce Parry - BBC

this is the rustic beginnings of what is a multi-billion billion dollar industry wouldn't look like it here death wars governments being overthrown corruption ecstasy hatred you name it it all begins here this is the the first step of the process and these bags here are chlorine and you can smell it already it's quite pungent i think we're going to see a few chemicals in use today suddenly the smell of chlorine has been replaced by that pungent odour that i'm getting so used to here of the coca leaf and bizarrely kind of it's becoming an acquired smell a toxic cocktail of chemicals is used to extract the cocaine from the leaves bleach kerosene and sulfuric acid cocaine has all sorts of reputations around the world but one of them is a sort of glamour drug this and all the chemicals and the smell and what's going on in it most certainly isn't that what are you putting in now can you see me rather him than me the kerosene containing the coca alkaloid is skimmed off and the rest of the chemicals poured away bleach and paraffin and that's going to go straight into the river systems the side fact of all of this is that there is still a market for cocaine patently because it's booming here there is a war against it and the the production of it is illegal but the sad truth of that is that because it's illegal it's happening behind closed doors because it's happening behind closed doors without a license this sort of pollution is rife and these people are the ones who are most affected they're not making any money from it yet they're polluting their own backyard and that's the reality of this valley suddenly there's trouble we hear the beat of a helicopter over here it's the authorities out looking for coca lab we all run something you for cover at an illegal coca plant it's the military popping in to say hello there it is right over here these guys understandably shaky three to four years and they know it is it worth all this hiding all this stuff that you know is against the law is it worth it for the amount of money you get this toxic brew is then strained and the residue heated his outlay in this has been about 900 us dollars that's with all the tarps and the barrels and the the kero and the ammonia the acid and of course 250 kilograms of coca leaf from that he says he'll make a profit of about 80 us dollars once it's been sold in place and that's after four days of work they have it the second stage of the multi-multi-billion dollar industry that is the cocaine industry really surprising i was expecting you know white fluff but from here that will go to a laboratory where it becomes cocaine as we know

Channel: BBC Studios

Views: 5,449,211

Keywords: BBC, Documentaries, Bruce Parry, Adventure, Anthropology, Exploration, South America, Travel, Tribes, Amazon

Id: p0bYoBB-loA

Length: 5min 9sec (309 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2010