MAN: All this wonderful Miami that you see,
all started out with drug money.
This town was built on coke money,
every bit of it.
MARIANA: If you did cocaine in America in the 80s,
it almost certainly passed through Miami.
MAN (over TV): Miami is cocaine city.
The main cocaine transit point between the American
mainland and the Bahamas.
MARIANA: Millions of dollars' worth were smuggled in
by this man alone.
MAN: I got paid 500,000 a trip.
I wouldn't do it for any less.
MARIANA: 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.
MAN (over loudspeaker): Hands up! Hands up!
Put your hands up!
MARIANA: And that I'd be the one chasing the traffickers.
MAN: They're starting to bring the old routes back.
With connections all through Central and South America.
MARIANA: This is a story about one of the most infamous and
intractable smuggling routes on the planet.
(singing in native language)
MAN: Police!
MARIANA: After 40 years of the multibillion‐dollar US war on drugs,
how is cocaine as cheap and plentiful as ever?
MAN: Cops don't catch anybody man.
People tell.
MARIANA: Let's go. Let's go, we were spotted.
And who are the people putting their lives on the line to
deliver Americans their preferred party drug?
MARIANA: I'm heading on a 3,000‐mile journey,
from green leaves to white lines, to find out.
♪ ♪
It's the police checkpoint.
EDISON: Okay.
MARIANA: When your job is reporting on black markets,
a few checkpoints are to be expected.
MARIANA: But nothing stirs the butterflies in the belly quite
like the last checkpoint, the one before you step into
ungoverned territory.
MARIANA: As we clear the checkpoint,
we enter a lawless region that produces roughly one‐fifth
of the world's cocaine, the VRAEM.
CEVICHE: Excelente.
MARIANA: My guide to this world is my friend Ceviche,
who lived in the VRAEM for many years.
CEVICHE: Si. MARIANA: They're drying out coca leaves right there.
MARIANA: Locals here in the VRAEM have been growing coca
for thousands of years.
But this isn't your typical farming community.
MARIANA: Throughout the valley,
vigilante militias like this are the de facto law of the land.
These coca farmers turned soldiers are trained to defend
their communities and their crop.
MAN: Uh‐hmm.
MARIANA: Coca leaves, eso. Okay.
They're saying I should just chew it, not swallow it.
It tastes like a leaf. Hmm.
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.
Originally, 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.
MARIANA: The Shining Path controls key smuggling routes
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.
MARIANA: The politics in the VRAEM are complicated.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: 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.
(man speaking native language)
MARIANA: But the truth is nearly 94% of coca leaves in
the VRAEM go to drug traffickers.
Here, the drug trade is controlled by small family
clans who operate independently and all of them
are suspicious 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.
MARIANA: 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.
MARIANA: 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 headed to meet the dueño,
the owner of a drug operation who's given us the 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 its 3,000‐mile journey to the US.
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.
This area is 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.
MARIANA: So, I'm a little startled,
when in the middle of a deserted road.
Uh, in the pitch dark.
A man suddenly appears out of the darkness.
I'm trying to figure out who this guy is.
MARIANA: 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.
MARIANA: Okay, shut off all lights.
And here it is, the entry into the jungle.
MARIANA: He's saying that the town that's close by and if they see us,
it 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.
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.
I can't see (bleep), I can't see (bleep).
Wow. This is it.
It's right here.
Wow.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: I'm not gonna lie, it's always a rush getting
access to these clandestine worlds.
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.
(speaking native language)
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 coca leaves to make
one kilo of cocaine.
They're 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 lab.
♪ ♪
Here in this makeshift lab,
they'll start the purification process.
MAN: Uh‐huh.
MARIANA: 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.
MAN: Yes.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: To purify cocaine in the middle of the Peruvian jungle,
they figured out how to extract the drug using
simple household chemicals and a whole lot of gasoline.
In this lab, each batch requires 70 gallons.
MARIANA: Ammonia, bleach, cement, lime, gasoline.
With each toxic additive,
the drug becomes more and more concentrated.
So, 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.
You see it's pretty dark.
And that's all the gasoline.
And the clear part underneath.
MARIANA: So, yeah, that's the drugs right there.
So, they call that clear liquid, they call it the soup.
MARIANA: No, thanks.
He asked me if I wanted to try it.
I said no.
Ooh, check this out. This is amazing.
It's crazy to think that only weeks from now this jungle
soup will disappear up some American's nostrils.
Now it's time for the final step.
A splash of ammonia to solidify the drugs.
MARIANA: Okay, they have to speed it,
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.
MARIANA: Hey guys, we have to go right now. MAN: Okay.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: Let's go, let's go.
Okay, so we were spotted by somebody up on the road.
They said we have to get to the car and get out of here.
Okay. We have to go fast.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: No, no, no.
(speaking native language)
Are they all inside?
Thankfully, we escaped without incident,
but the drug's long journey north is only just beginning.
It's a new day in the VRAEM.
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.
But the 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 trail head that leads up into the Andes.
Copy that, we're, uh, we're following the convoy,
we're right behind the other two cars.
(speaking native language)
Okay. We're here.
Okay. Take my headlamp out.
They're 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.
MARIANA: The elevation, more than 6,000 feet
and I can feel it.
Just started like 15 minutes ago and I'm already exhausted.
And I'm not carrying ten kilos on my back.
MARIANA: 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.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: I'm following the "cocaine highway" from the
mountains of Peru to the nightclubs of Miami.
It's 4:00 AM and I'm embedded with a group of young men
risking their lives to hike 30 kilos out of the VRAEM 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 going high up the mountain.
So, this here is worth $900.
Each kilo, in the US once it's processed,
it's worth $25,000.
MARIANA: That means these guys are carrying about
$750,000 worth of raw cocaine.
MARIANA: Peruvian cocaine paste.
Some of the most sought‐after in the world.
The same bricks that Escobar would fly into Colombia to
process into powder.
MARIANA: Gracias.
It looks so unassuming.
It's hard to imagine the trail of violence left in its wake.
(speaking native language)
Okay. They're getting anxious about 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.
It seems so unfair that the lack of options in the VRAEM
means they have to risk their lives just so Americans can
get their cheap high.
So, they said they're gonna walk for 12 more hours,
and then, uh, and then rest and then continue for
a day and a half more.
MARIANA: Okay.
We make plans to meet up at the end of their journey,
but I'm worried.
Anything could happen on the trail.
MARIANA: As the mochileros rise out of the valley,
the price of cocaine rises as well.
Theirs is just the first leg of a global distribution network.
If the mochileros survive the hike,
they will sell to a new owner, who will 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 cost 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.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: At first glance,
Turbo looks like any other Caribbean fishing town.
But just beneath the surface
is another reality.
MARIANA: Oliver Schmeig is a German photojournalist who's
spent decades in Colombia documenting the drug trade.
MARIANA: What are the chances we could see one of these
boats or even ride in one of them?
MARIANA: 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'm met by two cocaine smugglers in a boat.
(engine starts)
MARIANA: Today, the boats are empty of cargo.
The smugglers agree to talk about their work,
but they won't let me near the product.
The multimillion‐dollar payloads they move are too
valuable to risk showing them off to foreign journalists.
MARIANA: Smugglers use these low‐tech fiberglass boats to
outmaneuver the Colombian Military and its ally,
the US Coast Guard.
Radar waves, which easily detect metals,
can only get an extremely weak signal off fiberglass,
making boats like this practically invisible.
MARIANA: Okay. There's a boat over there.
MARIANA: Okay. It's a fisherman.
But they were saying before that if anything, uh,
if any boat approaches, that they, uh,
immediately take off their masks and we put the cameras down.
And we just say we're doing a show about tourism.
MARIANA: Okay. They're not feeling very comfortable.
MARIANA: Okay. They're going to take off their masks.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: I'm in a boat off the coast of Colombia with
two very nervous cocaine smugglers.
They were spooked by some passing fisherman 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 and that could be dangerous for them.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: The Clan del Golfo 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 Clan del Golfo?
MARIANA: Wow.
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 Clan del 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.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: Soldiers right up here.
And there's a cop up there, too?
Okay, what the (bleep)?
(speaking native language)
MAN: No. MARIANA: Okay.
But with the military everywhere,
we're all a bit on edge.
OLIVER: Let's try to get in very quickly here.
MARIANA: Okay.
(speaking native language)
OLIVER: Please.
MARIANA: This is it. It's a little ranch house.
Okay.
One, two. Can you hear me?
One, two, three, four, five.
MAN: Yes, ma'am. Okay. MAN: Okay.
MARIANA: Even though the commander and his bodyguard trust Oliver,
this is the first time we've met and they're skeptical.
I show him some photos of my past work and hope that will
convince him that I'm not law enforcement.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: They eventually agree to the interview.
Okay.
MARIANA: In the traditional business world,
he might be considered a VP of operations.
He's helping to manage a complicated,
global criminal network out of a farmhouse in the
Colombian countryside.
MARIANA: That's a weekly shipment of cocaine worth
$25 million on the streets of Miami.
MARIANA: The Clan del Golfo's top commander, Otoniel,
is Colombia's public enemy number one,
with a $5‐million bounty on his head.
He's notorious for assassinating government
officials and ordering the detonation of a grenade in the
middle of a night club.
(shouting)
He demands complete loyalty from his soldiers.
(speaking native language)
MARIANA: As we talk, I begin to realize that,
even when you're near the top of the cartel food chain,
safety is no guarantee.
MARIANA: In the last few years,
cocaine trafficking in Colombia has reached record levels.
From 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.
That's if smugglers can evade these guys.
(radio chatter)
MAN: Six yards.
MAN: We just spotted a northbound vessel heading
from the South in a known drug trafficking area.
Usually with a vessel that, that size, over 40 feet,
has cabins, spaces that you could actually hide
large amount of narcotics.
We're gonna board a vessel that is suspected of narcotics smuggling.
You're going to encounter a master.
He may or may not be armed.
Watch out for each other, do your job, gain compliance,
however, means necessary.
MARIANA: In the last five years,
the US Coast Guard has seized a record amount of cocaine at sea.
MAN: We're here today to offload 14,200 pounds.
MAN: 11 tons. MAN: 20 metric tons.
MAN: Of pure uncut cocaine. MAN: Worth over $190 million.
MAN (over loudspeaker): Hands up! Hands up!
Put your hands up.
(speaking native language)
MAN: The drug trafficking 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 that can be a semi‐submersible.
(speaking native language)
MAN: That could be a fully submersible,
that could be legitimate commercial traffic.
MAN: Get the vessel, starboard bow.
We're gonna scramble the boarding team together,
get them on the small boat, to go over and investigate,
see what's going on.
Just not enough to figure out what's actually physically going on,
until you put boots on deck.
MARIANA: The most dangerous part of an officer's job,
when they board what they suspect is a drug‐running boat.
MAN (over radio): Reports now show that there are packages on deck.
MAN (over radio): All good, go.
MARIANA: Smugglers in this situation have a difficult choice.
Abandon their cargo and face the cartel's wrath or try to
outrun the red, white, and blue.
MAN: US Coast Guard, let me see your hands!
♪ ♪
MAN: Uh, without reaching or touching,
you got any weapons onboard?
All right, we're gonna come onboard and, uh,
do an inspection of your vessel,
make sure you guys are in compliance with all
Federal rules and regulations for a vessel of this size.
MARIANA: 141 miles from Miami, the coast guard intercepted a
suspected smuggling boat.
WOMAN (over radio): 40 is 006, 10, two, zero.
MAN: Uh, the more traditional drug smuggling routes in the
Caribbean are having an uptick in activity.
You have nonstop boat traffic.
And some of them could be legitimately fishing,
but also have drugs hidden onboard.
MARIANA: Cocaine accounts for 94% of all narcotics seized at sea.
MAN: After the boarding, we discovered that the
vessel was a 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, uh,
when you're talking about safety.
MARIANA: No drugs are found.
The coast guard moves on.
Catching drug runners on the high seas is an elusive game
of cat and mouse.
MAN: We're operating in 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.
MAN: The busts out here, it's, it's just pivotal before those
drugs make it towards the US
and can be dispersed throughout the different states.
MARIANA: With such a large area to patrol,
it's impossible to catch them all.
MAN: In all the efforts, everyday doing the mission,
we only get 10% of known drugs that are being moved towards
the United States.
MARIANA: 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 crushes,
Crockett and Tubbs.
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 wonder the same.
Do you have some of the stuff you sell with you?
MAN: Yeah, I have some here.
MARIANA: You have some in your pocket?
MAN: Yeah. I brought a couple bags with me.
Just looks like regular powder, just a couple bags,
and keep them there, you know.
MARIANA: So it looks like a cigar case.
MAN: 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.
MARIANA: Uh‐hmm.
MAN: I come down to South Beach and I sell a $20 bag for
$40 and just multiply, so.
On a good day, I'll get two ounces, for about 2,000 bucks.
MARIANA: And if you sell it all,
how much money can you make?
MAN: About 5,000, almost six.
MARIANA: How long does it take you to sell that?
MAN: That'll be gone in three days.
MARIANA: So, you can make $3,000 in three days,
essentially $1,000 a day.
MAN: Yeah. Yeah, about that.
MARIANA: Is it pure cocaine that you sell? I mean.
MAN: It's all right, yeah.
It'll keep people up for days at a time, for sure.
South Beach loves it.
In the clubs, everybody, you know.
South Beach is cocaine.
In this year, this generation, that's what everybody wants.
Everybody loves to party, they come to Miami,
they wanna party in the party city.
That's what it's all about.
MARIANA: 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,
the only way he'd, 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?
MAN: You just gotta be low key.
You gotta be ahead of your game, you know,
because people try to set you up with different stuff, yeah.
You gotta be prepared, for sure.
Sometimes when I deal with more weight, you know,
I have to bring a pistol with me, stuff like that,
because people try to rob you.
MARIANA: What kind do you have?
MAN: A .357 Magnum with a six‐inch barrel.
It's one of my favorites.
MARIANA: Have you used it?
MAN: No, I wouldn't wanna comment on that.
MARIANA: Okay, he just got a phone call
and he's walking somewhere.
Oh, man, the he just went in there, somewhere.
MAN: I do mostly everything right now just with text messages.
I have like a burner phone, an untraceable phone.
MARIANA: Okay, he's walking, uh, this way.
So, I'm just gonna check on him, see what's up.
MARIANA: Right there inside the pizza place?
MARIANA: You just went into the bathroom and gave her.
MARIANA: And she gave you the money, and that was it.
MARIANA: Right.
How many people do you sell to in a week,
more or less, you think?
MAN: In a week, I'd say, I mean, 75 people, maybe.
MARIANA: Wow, that's a lot!
MAN: Product sells itself.
MARIANA: Aren't you afraid of getting caught?
MAN: I mean, now I am because, yeah,
I have a family and stuff like that,
but still gotta feed 'em, you know what I'm saying,
gotta take care of the family, by any means necessary,
that's all.
It's a small sacrifice, right?
Keep a little bail money on the side.
Yeah, right, I'm ready, for whatever happens.
MARIANA: 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.
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.
Okay, stop. They're here.
Back in the VRAEM, the chemist and the would‐be dentist have
just made their drop.
Another 30 kilos are headed north.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.