Crisis in Cocaine Valley (2022) Movie Script
The cocaine trade has been bad
since the pandemic.
Cocaine. Of all the party drugs,
it is one of the most expensive.
Peru is the world's
second largest producer.
But now...
All this here is coca.
...the "Cocaine Valley"
is close to collapse.
"Prices for illegal coca
are at rock bottom."
The crisis was triggered
by the corona pandemic.
Then there is the ever tougher
policing around the world.
Just two weeks ago,
we made 22 arrests.
The dealers are losing everything...
"I had my own two-story house.
But now the money is gone
so I've had to sell it."
They are doing everything they can
to get back to the good times.
This is where
the stuff is transported.
These are all smuggling routes.
Things have escalated
in "Cocaine Valley".
Many want one thing above all else:
to get back into the game.
At any price.
The Peruvian rain forest.
We are driving through one
of the world's most criminal places.
The team has an appointment
with an "insider".
For years, he has been involved in
large-scale, cross-border smuggling.
And knows almost
every drug lab in the region.
He calls himself: "Jhon"
Dammit... Where are you?
Hurry up, Jhon!
I'll be there in 15 minutes.
See you then.
This will be the first time ever
that a drugs producer
has spoken out about the decline
of what is known
as Peru's "white empire."
The meeting is taking place
under the conditions that
the informer's voice is distorted.
And... His face hidden.
Put the camera down,
we can't film him.
Insider Jhon takes the team
into the heart of the VRAEM.
A valley where he has lived
almost all his life.
The center
of Peruvian cocaine production.
The VRAEM is located in the southern
highland regions of Peru.
The name represents the rivers
Apurmac, Ene and Mantaro.
It covers an area of around
twelve thousand square kilometers.
And is known throughout the world
as "Cocaine Valley".
Drug barons were until recently
producing around four-hundred tons
of cocaine here per year.
For people like Jhon,
cocaine is part of daily life.
It has been a constant companion
since childhood.
I started dealing the stuff
together with a buddy.
We bought paste from "coca ponds"
and sold it on to cartels.
On to "firms",
that's what we called them.
I ended up staying in the business.
The money was good.
Cocaine has been dominant
in the region for decades.
Almost everyone here
makes money from it
in one way or another.
But then the pandemic
changed everything.
Now, more and more towns
are lying idle.
Before the crisis,
this place was full of life.
There were stores,
people drinking beer
with beautiful girls.
But now,
with the crisis we're having,
everything is at rock bottom.
It all looks a bit depressing.
There's nothing left at all.
There used to be wild parties here.
With prostitutes...
Full bars, and... Plenty of cocaine.
Many have now abandoned the valley
to find work elsewhere.
What's left are empty streets
and unused buildings.
Those who have stayed
are clearly struggling to survive.
And hoping that the VRAEM cocaine
market will soon bounce back.
Cocoa, coffee, barbasco and achiote
used to be produced here.
But by the eighties,
coca became the main crop
because it was profitable.
It can be harvested
four times a year.
That's what the drug producers
who came here took advantage of.
Around eighty percent of the local
economy is based on one thing.
Coca.
If a vehicle comes,
it may be loaded with coca leaves.
If the driver sees we're filming,
we'll have problems.
A lot are transporting
loads of merchandise.
The fields are full.
At the moment it's risky for
strangers to come into the valley.
A car is coming.
He's only carrying cocoa plants.
Some farmers are now switching
from coca to cocoa.
But not many...
This whole region is coca.
They make the drug from it.
Farmers sell the leaves to people
who then extract the drug
to make coca paste.
A middleman then comes who buys
the paste, and resells it to a lab.
They use it to make cocaine.
Then it goes to the cities.
Or across the borders
to other countries.
Cultivation in "Cocaine Valley"
covers an area
of more than thirty-six thousand
soccer fields.
Most of what
is grown there is illegal.
A few farmers are permitted
to grow coca under license.
They can sell the leaves
as a stimulant, like coffee.
This is a coca leaf.
We are in a plantation.
But the rest goes to the cartels.
It is then processed
into illegal cocaine,
a drug in high demand
around the world.
It makes people feel euphoric.
Gives them an addictive "high".
Cultivated by people like Edgar.
He and his pickers harvest
four times a year.
They did so before the crisis
and now too.
They don't feel
like they have a choice.
Coca is their only source of income.
We used to get paid
25 to 30 euros per arroba.
That's 12 kilograms.
But during the pandemic,
countries closed their borders
and the price of coca crashed.
At the moment,
we get between five and eight euros.
And the pickers get
25 cents for every kilo.
It's not worth it anymore.
If Edgar doesn't harvest the plants,
they are at risk of perishing.
That's why he keeps doing it.
He is one of those refusing
to give up on production.
Hoping that business
will at some point pick up again.
I used to harvest around 1200 kilos.
Selling it for 3000 euros.
Half of this went to the pickers.
There was enough left over
to live on for three months.
For decades, farmers have been using
a lot of pesticides on their coca.
Deterioration of the clay soil
is clear to see.
Switching to legal crops
is not an option for farmer Edgar.
Cocoa isn't worth it.
It can only be harvested
once a year.
We don't grow bananas
because we don't have
the customers for them.
Most farmers
therefore only grow coca.
But we're practically unemployed
because no one is buying.
We're just looking for ways
to provide for our families.
And to feed our children.
The cocaine crisis in Peru
is destroying the lives
of those who have long been saddled
to a one-trick pony:
the illicit trade in drugs.
At the moment,
Edgar isn't selling his product
to internationally operating
drug dealers
he gives much of it away.
And uses the rest himself.
He'll make just two or three euros
with today's crop.
Just take it. I hope it helps you.
Try selling it
to get food for yourselves.
For you and your children.
If it's not enough,
I'll give you more.
For several decades
in "Cocaine Valley",
the drug has been the chance
to make money.
Recently, though, it has become
more of a curse than anything else.
You could say the people
made themselves dependent on it.
For around 8000 years,
the indigenous people
have been using coca for rituals.
And as medicine.
Peruvians use it for tea
and chew it.
But there is now an overabundance
of it for "big business".
What's left is a lot
of illegal merchandise
that far exceeds local demand.
Even in the markets,
the small amount of
legally sold leaves are piling up.
Tens-of-thousands of people moved to
Cocaine Valley over recent decades
in the hope of escaping poverty
by working with coca.
It's a plan
that's not working any more.
Almost half-a-million people
now live here.
Many at subsistence level.
Just how extreme
Peru's cocaine crisis is
becomes apparent as night falls.
Jhon, an ex-courier,
takes us to one of the drug labs
deep into the jungle.
A vehicle's coming.
I'll step on the gas.
Is it close or far?
I have to look
where I can let it pass.
I want to be far away
when we get out.
There's a road, isn't there?
Where? Here?
No, it's further ahead.
A vehicle's coming.
Two vehicles are coming.
After an hour we reach the first
destination without being followed.
From here we continue on foot.
Take the other backpack as well.
-This one?
-Yes, that one.
Yes, yes, yes.
-What else?
-For yourself?
No, for you.
Get down. Down, down, down.
A vehicle's coming.
A vehicle's coming. Turn it off.
Turn off your light.
The rest stay in the car.
Go down the path. Slowly. Slowly.
Duck down.
Get down, get down, get down.
Get right down. Damn.
The light can be seen.
Come here.
Come here, come here, get down.
Go down there and wait.
This is where
the stuff is transported.
These are all smuggling routes.
In the darkness,
we meet up with Toni.
For the past 15 years,
he has been making cocaine paste
whenever he gets the opportunity.
With him is his "apprentice" Javier.
They take us along a riverbed
for one hour.
To cover up possible tracks.
We're about to get to the coca lab.
It's dangerous to be here.
It's illicit drugs.
A little later,
we reach a so-called "Poza".
Closed down.
With a pond full of coca leaves.
This has already been used.
And that's what's left.
The pond has been abandoned.
That's around 2.5 tons.
Enough to produce
10 kilos of cocaine.
But no one's doing anything anymore.
Simply because
there's no money in it.
The trade in drugs
has come to a stop.
No one wants the stuff,
neither in the cities,
nor across the borders.
There's no demand.
Everything is at a standstill.
Two-and-a-half tons of coca leaves.
Mixed with table salt and bleach.
The coke producers
use it in the pond
to extract
the all-important alkaloid.
Production then takes place later
of the "white powder". Cocaine.
In VRAEM's heyday,
hundreds of such ponds
were in constant use.
Now many are shut down.
This is at least a week old.
The top is dry.
But only the top.
Underneath it's still damp.
Producers normally
use the leaves four times.
To get different
qualities of cocaine.
After the fourth time,
the leaves are worthless.
In Peru, a pond lying idle
for a week used to be unthinkable.
But it also shows that although
production might be struggling,
it is not fully out of action.
Let's go to the lab.
How long will it take?
It's just up ahead. There.
The lab.
It seems abandoned.
Drugs haven't been produced here
for a while.
A consequence
of the corona pandemic.
No one worked during the pandemic.
There was no coca harvest,
no work in the ponds, nothing.
Everything has been left here
abandoned for months.
Everyone has stocks of cocaine,
but it loses weight over time.
And therefore also value.
Staying around the production
facilities is dangerous.
Many coke producers are
keeping watch over their idle ponds.
Just waiting for business
to pick up again.
The owner might show up at any time.
If we're still here,
there'll be a high price to pay.
Possibly our lives.
Coca,
the fuel for "Cocaine Valley".
It is clearly in danger
of running out.
Also because of increasingly
efficient policing around the world.
Such as in Rotterdam.
Europe's largest port.
And one of the biggest gateways
into Europe for the drug mafia.
Each week, more than one-hundred
container ships arrive at the port.
And with them, cocaine.
The port handles 15 million
containers a year.
Checking them all
would be an impossible task.
Customs therefore use
state-of-the-art technology
to uncover smuggled cocaine.
Drone teams have also recently begun
targeting smugglers from the air.
Today we are going
to fly over the Maasvlakte.
There are lots of terminals there,
with containers arriving
from all over the world.
That's where
there's the greatest risk.
The border closures
and flight cancellations
at the beginning of the pandemic
shut down previous smuggling routes.
Since then, the drug mafia
has been looking for new ways
to bring their merchandise
into Europe.
And are using shipping containers
even more than before.
The record drug haul in Rotterdam
is 72 tons of cocaine
in one year.
With a retail value
of five-billion euros.
The Maasvlakte is home
to some of the largest
container terminals in the world.
Just this section of the port
covers an area of almost
40 square kilometers,
as much as 5500 soccer fields.
Drones help officials
control the vast area
with minimal effort
and without being noticed.
The tactic: to get the smugglers
to lead customs to the drugs.
We are looking
for unusual movements.
For example,
small boats approaching big ships.
We then inform colleagues
from the port police.
We do the same
for people acting suspiciously.
People are generally not allowed
to walk around here.
If we spot anything suspicious,
our colleagues take a closer look.
The container terminals
are fully automated.
Anyone walking around here
will raise suspicions.
They could be "extractors",
smugglers who get the cocaine
out of the port.
The extractors might hide for days
in empty containers in the port area
eating, drinking and sleeping there,
waiting for the drugs to arrive.
When customs officers using drones
spot whole groups of people
acting suspiciously,
it is a sure sign
that large amounts of cocaine
are about to arrive at the port.
Then it's a case of catching
the smugglers in the act.
And seizing the cocaine.
We've been very successful
over recent weeks.
Two weeks ago, we made 22 arrests,
and last week 18.
Last year, we made a total of 561.
The drones helped us a lot.
We used them to spot the smugglers,
and our colleagues
then apprehended them.
To get to the ringleaders
and put a stop
to the international drug mafia,
Rotterdam uses the HARC team,
a special unit
that includes customs officials,
port police
and the public prosecutor's office.
Under team leader Gert Scheringa,
the HARC team takes over
as soon as there is a suspicion
of drugs anywhere in the port.
We find drugs on average around
240 times a year.
Quite often,
it's just 10 kilos in a container,
but larger hauls,
of 1000 kilos or more,
are becoming increasingly common.
Smugglers are sending
ever larger quantities in one go.
Customs officials check around
3000 containers a day.
A risk analysis indicates
which containers are selected
with the main indicators being
country of origin,
ports of call and type of cargo.
Sometimes we also get tip-offs
from South America.
We have liaison officers there
working with the local police
and customs.
And if they get any inside tips,
they pass them on to us
and then the HARC team
investigates here
and starts checking accordingly.
Despite all the state-of-the-art
search technology,
sniffer dogs are still one
of the best ways to find cocaine.
Reefer containers are
particularly popular with smugglers.
These are used
to transport perishable goods
so customs can't detain them
too long to conduct searches.
We've got bananas from Ecuador here.
We are going
to search the container.
I'll let our dog loose
and she'll do the search.
We always do it this way.
The dog has been trained
to sniff out cocaine.
She can instantly detect even the
tiniest traces of the drug's scent
no matter how well
the smugglers have hidden it.
There seems to only be bananas
in this container.
But smugglers often
hide the drugs in the floor
or in the refrigerators.
Sit!
Okay, the container is clean,
I'm releasing it now.
To use the dogs
even more efficiently,
customs have developed
a special procedure
where officers take
concentrated air samples
from any suspect container.
These are then put
in a glass carousel.
A sniffer dog can then check
several containers within seconds.
The idea of taking air samples
isn't new.
It's been used
in medical science for a long time.
for example, for cancer patients.
That's what we're doing too.
We've modified the procedure
to our own requirements,
enabling us to take air samples
from containers.
For a dog, the air in the glass
is sufficient for checking
the contents of an entire container.
Officials have deliberately added
a positive sample today
to test the young dog.
The different search methods
available to the port
of Rotterdam authorities
means that they are increasingly
delivering serious blows
to the drug mafia.
Gert Scheringa,
the special unit's team leader,
is very satisfied
with the team's work.
We found 4000 kilos
in a container here.
For me, this is a perfect example
of how well we're doing
with the HARC team,
and we're all very proud of it.
But they also know that they are far
from hauling in every smuggled drug.
The team's only option is to use
increasingly efficient methods
to get as many drugs
out of circulation as possible.
And by doing so,
making things increasingly difficult
for the smugglers.
Like those in Peru.
For fifteen years, Toni
was involved in big-time dealing.
He now makes furniture.
And sees only one way forward:
getting back into the business.
Getting back into the drug trade.
Everybody in my family has
always been into the drugs trade,
so that's what I've been doing.
I followed in my uncle's footsteps.
I felt I had to do it.
To earn money.
Toni quickly became a "mochilero",
a drug courier.
The numerous smuggling routes
take him all over the jungle.
Business used to be very profitable.
Good money.
I earned 80 euros per kilo.
That equates to one thousand
four hundred euros per trip.
There used to be
several trips a week.
Today, it's just one a month,
if that.
This also means
more police officers available
for the decreasing
numbers of smugglers.
You have to watch out
for the police.
They found us once
and tried to arrest us.
They chased and shot at us.
Two of my friends were arrested.
The rest of us ran,
leaving all the drugs behind.
We got away with
just the clothes we were wearing.
Those are the risks
if you work with cocaine.
I used to feel scared.
But now, I feel nothing at all.
Not even when someone shoots.
I have lost all my fear.
Toni planned to quit
after a few years.
Then he used cocaine money
to buy a two-story house.
He never managed to quit.
But then came the crisis.
Today he's almost back to nothing.
But he's not thinking of stopping.
Yes, I'm sorry,
but people here
earn their living through coca.
Ninety percent of the valley
makes a living from it.
There are other opportunities,
but they're are not as good.
A little later, it happens.
Toni gets a job.
Just like in the "good old days".
His task:
to produce cocaine sulfate.
When he's done it,
he'll hand it over to a lab.
And then smuggle the "white powder"
to the intended destination.
Toni takes as many fresh leaves
as he can get.
And mixes them
with old ones in a "poza"
that he rents at short notice.
The leaves are mixed
with substances in the pond
to get the base
for the cocaine paste.
The "substances"
are ordinary salt and bleach.
When they combine,
they dehydrate the leaves...
And release
the cocaine active ingredient.
The salt simply helps to extract
all of the active ingredient.
We would lose a lot of money
if we didn't use it.
Plenty of water is added.
The leaves release their ingredients
even faster when treaded.
I get up to 13 kilos of paste
out of the 2.5 tons of leaves.
Nine to 10 kilos
of cocaine hydrochloride
can then be produced from it
later in the lab.
That means 240 kilos of coca leaves.
For one kilo of cocaine.
The pond basically works
like a giant teapot.
Toni is in his element.
The liquid flows along here
and is filtered.
The water then runs
through a pipe into a tank.
We then chemically process it there.
A little later...
The next crucial step
in cocaine production.
This needs gasoline.
When the liquid is in the pond,
we need to add gasoline
to the coke mixture.
I've got just under 200 liters
of it in the barrel.
The process requires care
and a lot of patience.
This is the only way to get
all the cocaine out of the mixture.
The drug sticks to gasoline.
The chemical properties of gasoline
mean it floats on water,
so producers just need to skim off
the gasoline-drug mixture.
Like fishing with a net.
Now we get rid
of all the gasoline mixture.
You can see the gasoline here
and the coca water underneath.
I just need to skim it with the wood
and get it out.
Then the residues
need to be removed.
After pouring into a barrel,
leaf residues settle to the bottom.
Only the drug
then floats on the surface...
coated in gasoline.
That now needs to be removed
with the help of ammonium.
We eventually got used to the smell,
but it still stings.
It kills your brain.
But we don't have a choice.
What else can we do?
We have to cope
with the corrosive smell.
Effects on health:
blurred vision and hallucinations.
A price that everyone here
is willing to pay
for the purest possible
cocaine paste.
Watch your hand...
A kilo of paste used to fetch
almost 700 euros.
Now it's around half.
Less the cost of leaves,
gasoline and chemicals.
We still managed to get up
to quality level three.
It's milky, not white.
This is, so to say, the drug.
The whiter the paste,
the higher its purity.
The business is illegal.
And life-threatening.
An alternative...
is being provided
by the Peruvian government.
DEVIDA, a "National Commission
for Development",
is attempting to retrain
more and more coca farmers.
In the past three years,
it has invested 45 million euros
in the VRAEM, "Cocaine Valley".
To help criminals
become regular farmers again.
And to show them
how to get maximum yields out of it.
From cocoa, for example.
You can see three shoots here
that will soon have pods.
The shoots you don't need
have to be cut off.
They're in the way.
We thin out the plants
so that the shoots with pods
get enough sunlight.
That enough air gets in.
And they won't get sick.
How do we do that?
The shoot here crosses over.
We prune it.
Why are you going to cut it off?
Because it crosses another shoot.
Yes, it crosses over and sticks out.
The plant should normally have
a circumference of one meter.
We prune it back.
Well done. What else?
-Over there, too.
-Right.
So we cut in close to the stem.
-The others too.
-The next one too.
The pods are diseased.
DEVIDA also provides support
to farmers in growing crops
other than cocoa.
However,
farmers cannot grow anything.
Decades of pesticide use
in coca cultivation
has put extreme stress
on the soils in the valley.
And farmers will be earning less
as a result of the changeover.
Economically, we are at rock bottom
due to the pandemic.
We can't send
our children to school.
We need support.
Some people just come
and pick crops without permission.
Sometimes it's just too tough.
Cocoa, bananas, and fish farming,
the market for all these
"old new opportunities" is small.
Farmers are constantly in danger
of sliding further into poverty
as a result of the changeover.
We only sell our products locally,
nowhere else.
Now we're getting support here
to grow cocoa.
And we are growing it.
But we have to make the sales
ourselves.
Prices are pretty darn low.
We need buyers on a large scale.
Anyone who will come
and buy our products.
Poor roads in the VRAEM also
make it difficult to export goods.
The last airport here
was closed decades ago...
also to minimize drug exports.
Ironic, because it meant the crisis
is dividing "Cocaine Valley"
more than ever...
Those not wanting to give up
the drug business
are producing as much cocaine
as they can sell
in the remaining labs in the jungle.
Now it's about
pounding the dry paste.
This is important
to be able to mill it afterwards.
Then more chemicals are added.
And it all ends up in a press.
An estimated two hundred
production facilities like this
exist in Peru's "Cocaine Valley."
Only a handful are active
at the moment because of the crisis.
But many are waiting
to reactivate the idle "poza".
To produce, as in peak times,
four hundred tons of cocaine
annually for the world market.
Or more.
For maximum profit.
Workers earn about
15 euros per kilogram.
Chemists constantly
renegotiate their salaries
according to market conditions.
1.763 kg.
The production process involves
constant cleaning and filtering.
At the end, the cocaine
is put into a microwave.
To eliminate
any liquids still in it.
Because "customers" pay by weight.
The outcome of the night's work:
a good kilo of pure "stuff".
The crisis in Cocaine Valley?
Right now,
it almost seems to be over.
The cocaine leaves the VRAEM
via the lab.
Toni is also responsible here.
His task:
taking the cocaine to a middleman.
It then goes
from one person to next.
A relay race with a European port
as the finishing line,
usually Rotterdam or Antwerp.
We are transporting 12 kilos.
Each of us has six.
Double that amount was normal,
but we just don't produce
that much anymore.
In the valley,
a kilo costs around 550 euros.
When we smuggle it out,
the value rises to around
800 euros per kilo.
I get around 20% of that.
In Europe,
it's sure to be more expensive.
I don't know how much.
But it's certainly worth more.
The street value in Europe,
depending on the quality,
is around 50000 euros a kilo.
What we need to watch out for
most now are thieves.
And wild animals.
We're used to it.
But we still feel the adrenaline.
Tougher competition.
The corona crisis.
Or tighter policing.
whatever happens, the mochileros,
Peru's drug couriers,
hardly ever think of quitting.
They want the old times back
more than anything else.
Just like our "insider": Jhon.
I worked in the drug trade
for 10 years.
And always think about returning.
To make money.
But it's not the right time
at the moment.
Because there isn't enough work yet.
But what else can you do here
in the valley.
Where there are no businesses,
and no jobs.
For decades, "Cocaine Valley"
survived on one thing only: coca.
And many here are hoping
it soon returns.
The "Crisis in Cocaine Valley"
could soon be over.
And farmers, producers
and drug barons
will probably be relying
on one thing again:
the trade in drugs.
plint.com
since the pandemic.
Cocaine. Of all the party drugs,
it is one of the most expensive.
Peru is the world's
second largest producer.
But now...
All this here is coca.
...the "Cocaine Valley"
is close to collapse.
"Prices for illegal coca
are at rock bottom."
The crisis was triggered
by the corona pandemic.
Then there is the ever tougher
policing around the world.
Just two weeks ago,
we made 22 arrests.
The dealers are losing everything...
"I had my own two-story house.
But now the money is gone
so I've had to sell it."
They are doing everything they can
to get back to the good times.
This is where
the stuff is transported.
These are all smuggling routes.
Things have escalated
in "Cocaine Valley".
Many want one thing above all else:
to get back into the game.
At any price.
The Peruvian rain forest.
We are driving through one
of the world's most criminal places.
The team has an appointment
with an "insider".
For years, he has been involved in
large-scale, cross-border smuggling.
And knows almost
every drug lab in the region.
He calls himself: "Jhon"
Dammit... Where are you?
Hurry up, Jhon!
I'll be there in 15 minutes.
See you then.
This will be the first time ever
that a drugs producer
has spoken out about the decline
of what is known
as Peru's "white empire."
The meeting is taking place
under the conditions that
the informer's voice is distorted.
And... His face hidden.
Put the camera down,
we can't film him.
Insider Jhon takes the team
into the heart of the VRAEM.
A valley where he has lived
almost all his life.
The center
of Peruvian cocaine production.
The VRAEM is located in the southern
highland regions of Peru.
The name represents the rivers
Apurmac, Ene and Mantaro.
It covers an area of around
twelve thousand square kilometers.
And is known throughout the world
as "Cocaine Valley".
Drug barons were until recently
producing around four-hundred tons
of cocaine here per year.
For people like Jhon,
cocaine is part of daily life.
It has been a constant companion
since childhood.
I started dealing the stuff
together with a buddy.
We bought paste from "coca ponds"
and sold it on to cartels.
On to "firms",
that's what we called them.
I ended up staying in the business.
The money was good.
Cocaine has been dominant
in the region for decades.
Almost everyone here
makes money from it
in one way or another.
But then the pandemic
changed everything.
Now, more and more towns
are lying idle.
Before the crisis,
this place was full of life.
There were stores,
people drinking beer
with beautiful girls.
But now,
with the crisis we're having,
everything is at rock bottom.
It all looks a bit depressing.
There's nothing left at all.
There used to be wild parties here.
With prostitutes...
Full bars, and... Plenty of cocaine.
Many have now abandoned the valley
to find work elsewhere.
What's left are empty streets
and unused buildings.
Those who have stayed
are clearly struggling to survive.
And hoping that the VRAEM cocaine
market will soon bounce back.
Cocoa, coffee, barbasco and achiote
used to be produced here.
But by the eighties,
coca became the main crop
because it was profitable.
It can be harvested
four times a year.
That's what the drug producers
who came here took advantage of.
Around eighty percent of the local
economy is based on one thing.
Coca.
If a vehicle comes,
it may be loaded with coca leaves.
If the driver sees we're filming,
we'll have problems.
A lot are transporting
loads of merchandise.
The fields are full.
At the moment it's risky for
strangers to come into the valley.
A car is coming.
He's only carrying cocoa plants.
Some farmers are now switching
from coca to cocoa.
But not many...
This whole region is coca.
They make the drug from it.
Farmers sell the leaves to people
who then extract the drug
to make coca paste.
A middleman then comes who buys
the paste, and resells it to a lab.
They use it to make cocaine.
Then it goes to the cities.
Or across the borders
to other countries.
Cultivation in "Cocaine Valley"
covers an area
of more than thirty-six thousand
soccer fields.
Most of what
is grown there is illegal.
A few farmers are permitted
to grow coca under license.
They can sell the leaves
as a stimulant, like coffee.
This is a coca leaf.
We are in a plantation.
But the rest goes to the cartels.
It is then processed
into illegal cocaine,
a drug in high demand
around the world.
It makes people feel euphoric.
Gives them an addictive "high".
Cultivated by people like Edgar.
He and his pickers harvest
four times a year.
They did so before the crisis
and now too.
They don't feel
like they have a choice.
Coca is their only source of income.
We used to get paid
25 to 30 euros per arroba.
That's 12 kilograms.
But during the pandemic,
countries closed their borders
and the price of coca crashed.
At the moment,
we get between five and eight euros.
And the pickers get
25 cents for every kilo.
It's not worth it anymore.
If Edgar doesn't harvest the plants,
they are at risk of perishing.
That's why he keeps doing it.
He is one of those refusing
to give up on production.
Hoping that business
will at some point pick up again.
I used to harvest around 1200 kilos.
Selling it for 3000 euros.
Half of this went to the pickers.
There was enough left over
to live on for three months.
For decades, farmers have been using
a lot of pesticides on their coca.
Deterioration of the clay soil
is clear to see.
Switching to legal crops
is not an option for farmer Edgar.
Cocoa isn't worth it.
It can only be harvested
once a year.
We don't grow bananas
because we don't have
the customers for them.
Most farmers
therefore only grow coca.
But we're practically unemployed
because no one is buying.
We're just looking for ways
to provide for our families.
And to feed our children.
The cocaine crisis in Peru
is destroying the lives
of those who have long been saddled
to a one-trick pony:
the illicit trade in drugs.
At the moment,
Edgar isn't selling his product
to internationally operating
drug dealers
he gives much of it away.
And uses the rest himself.
He'll make just two or three euros
with today's crop.
Just take it. I hope it helps you.
Try selling it
to get food for yourselves.
For you and your children.
If it's not enough,
I'll give you more.
For several decades
in "Cocaine Valley",
the drug has been the chance
to make money.
Recently, though, it has become
more of a curse than anything else.
You could say the people
made themselves dependent on it.
For around 8000 years,
the indigenous people
have been using coca for rituals.
And as medicine.
Peruvians use it for tea
and chew it.
But there is now an overabundance
of it for "big business".
What's left is a lot
of illegal merchandise
that far exceeds local demand.
Even in the markets,
the small amount of
legally sold leaves are piling up.
Tens-of-thousands of people moved to
Cocaine Valley over recent decades
in the hope of escaping poverty
by working with coca.
It's a plan
that's not working any more.
Almost half-a-million people
now live here.
Many at subsistence level.
Just how extreme
Peru's cocaine crisis is
becomes apparent as night falls.
Jhon, an ex-courier,
takes us to one of the drug labs
deep into the jungle.
A vehicle's coming.
I'll step on the gas.
Is it close or far?
I have to look
where I can let it pass.
I want to be far away
when we get out.
There's a road, isn't there?
Where? Here?
No, it's further ahead.
A vehicle's coming.
Two vehicles are coming.
After an hour we reach the first
destination without being followed.
From here we continue on foot.
Take the other backpack as well.
-This one?
-Yes, that one.
Yes, yes, yes.
-What else?
-For yourself?
No, for you.
Get down. Down, down, down.
A vehicle's coming.
A vehicle's coming. Turn it off.
Turn off your light.
The rest stay in the car.
Go down the path. Slowly. Slowly.
Duck down.
Get down, get down, get down.
Get right down. Damn.
The light can be seen.
Come here.
Come here, come here, get down.
Go down there and wait.
This is where
the stuff is transported.
These are all smuggling routes.
In the darkness,
we meet up with Toni.
For the past 15 years,
he has been making cocaine paste
whenever he gets the opportunity.
With him is his "apprentice" Javier.
They take us along a riverbed
for one hour.
To cover up possible tracks.
We're about to get to the coca lab.
It's dangerous to be here.
It's illicit drugs.
A little later,
we reach a so-called "Poza".
Closed down.
With a pond full of coca leaves.
This has already been used.
And that's what's left.
The pond has been abandoned.
That's around 2.5 tons.
Enough to produce
10 kilos of cocaine.
But no one's doing anything anymore.
Simply because
there's no money in it.
The trade in drugs
has come to a stop.
No one wants the stuff,
neither in the cities,
nor across the borders.
There's no demand.
Everything is at a standstill.
Two-and-a-half tons of coca leaves.
Mixed with table salt and bleach.
The coke producers
use it in the pond
to extract
the all-important alkaloid.
Production then takes place later
of the "white powder". Cocaine.
In VRAEM's heyday,
hundreds of such ponds
were in constant use.
Now many are shut down.
This is at least a week old.
The top is dry.
But only the top.
Underneath it's still damp.
Producers normally
use the leaves four times.
To get different
qualities of cocaine.
After the fourth time,
the leaves are worthless.
In Peru, a pond lying idle
for a week used to be unthinkable.
But it also shows that although
production might be struggling,
it is not fully out of action.
Let's go to the lab.
How long will it take?
It's just up ahead. There.
The lab.
It seems abandoned.
Drugs haven't been produced here
for a while.
A consequence
of the corona pandemic.
No one worked during the pandemic.
There was no coca harvest,
no work in the ponds, nothing.
Everything has been left here
abandoned for months.
Everyone has stocks of cocaine,
but it loses weight over time.
And therefore also value.
Staying around the production
facilities is dangerous.
Many coke producers are
keeping watch over their idle ponds.
Just waiting for business
to pick up again.
The owner might show up at any time.
If we're still here,
there'll be a high price to pay.
Possibly our lives.
Coca,
the fuel for "Cocaine Valley".
It is clearly in danger
of running out.
Also because of increasingly
efficient policing around the world.
Such as in Rotterdam.
Europe's largest port.
And one of the biggest gateways
into Europe for the drug mafia.
Each week, more than one-hundred
container ships arrive at the port.
And with them, cocaine.
The port handles 15 million
containers a year.
Checking them all
would be an impossible task.
Customs therefore use
state-of-the-art technology
to uncover smuggled cocaine.
Drone teams have also recently begun
targeting smugglers from the air.
Today we are going
to fly over the Maasvlakte.
There are lots of terminals there,
with containers arriving
from all over the world.
That's where
there's the greatest risk.
The border closures
and flight cancellations
at the beginning of the pandemic
shut down previous smuggling routes.
Since then, the drug mafia
has been looking for new ways
to bring their merchandise
into Europe.
And are using shipping containers
even more than before.
The record drug haul in Rotterdam
is 72 tons of cocaine
in one year.
With a retail value
of five-billion euros.
The Maasvlakte is home
to some of the largest
container terminals in the world.
Just this section of the port
covers an area of almost
40 square kilometers,
as much as 5500 soccer fields.
Drones help officials
control the vast area
with minimal effort
and without being noticed.
The tactic: to get the smugglers
to lead customs to the drugs.
We are looking
for unusual movements.
For example,
small boats approaching big ships.
We then inform colleagues
from the port police.
We do the same
for people acting suspiciously.
People are generally not allowed
to walk around here.
If we spot anything suspicious,
our colleagues take a closer look.
The container terminals
are fully automated.
Anyone walking around here
will raise suspicions.
They could be "extractors",
smugglers who get the cocaine
out of the port.
The extractors might hide for days
in empty containers in the port area
eating, drinking and sleeping there,
waiting for the drugs to arrive.
When customs officers using drones
spot whole groups of people
acting suspiciously,
it is a sure sign
that large amounts of cocaine
are about to arrive at the port.
Then it's a case of catching
the smugglers in the act.
And seizing the cocaine.
We've been very successful
over recent weeks.
Two weeks ago, we made 22 arrests,
and last week 18.
Last year, we made a total of 561.
The drones helped us a lot.
We used them to spot the smugglers,
and our colleagues
then apprehended them.
To get to the ringleaders
and put a stop
to the international drug mafia,
Rotterdam uses the HARC team,
a special unit
that includes customs officials,
port police
and the public prosecutor's office.
Under team leader Gert Scheringa,
the HARC team takes over
as soon as there is a suspicion
of drugs anywhere in the port.
We find drugs on average around
240 times a year.
Quite often,
it's just 10 kilos in a container,
but larger hauls,
of 1000 kilos or more,
are becoming increasingly common.
Smugglers are sending
ever larger quantities in one go.
Customs officials check around
3000 containers a day.
A risk analysis indicates
which containers are selected
with the main indicators being
country of origin,
ports of call and type of cargo.
Sometimes we also get tip-offs
from South America.
We have liaison officers there
working with the local police
and customs.
And if they get any inside tips,
they pass them on to us
and then the HARC team
investigates here
and starts checking accordingly.
Despite all the state-of-the-art
search technology,
sniffer dogs are still one
of the best ways to find cocaine.
Reefer containers are
particularly popular with smugglers.
These are used
to transport perishable goods
so customs can't detain them
too long to conduct searches.
We've got bananas from Ecuador here.
We are going
to search the container.
I'll let our dog loose
and she'll do the search.
We always do it this way.
The dog has been trained
to sniff out cocaine.
She can instantly detect even the
tiniest traces of the drug's scent
no matter how well
the smugglers have hidden it.
There seems to only be bananas
in this container.
But smugglers often
hide the drugs in the floor
or in the refrigerators.
Sit!
Okay, the container is clean,
I'm releasing it now.
To use the dogs
even more efficiently,
customs have developed
a special procedure
where officers take
concentrated air samples
from any suspect container.
These are then put
in a glass carousel.
A sniffer dog can then check
several containers within seconds.
The idea of taking air samples
isn't new.
It's been used
in medical science for a long time.
for example, for cancer patients.
That's what we're doing too.
We've modified the procedure
to our own requirements,
enabling us to take air samples
from containers.
For a dog, the air in the glass
is sufficient for checking
the contents of an entire container.
Officials have deliberately added
a positive sample today
to test the young dog.
The different search methods
available to the port
of Rotterdam authorities
means that they are increasingly
delivering serious blows
to the drug mafia.
Gert Scheringa,
the special unit's team leader,
is very satisfied
with the team's work.
We found 4000 kilos
in a container here.
For me, this is a perfect example
of how well we're doing
with the HARC team,
and we're all very proud of it.
But they also know that they are far
from hauling in every smuggled drug.
The team's only option is to use
increasingly efficient methods
to get as many drugs
out of circulation as possible.
And by doing so,
making things increasingly difficult
for the smugglers.
Like those in Peru.
For fifteen years, Toni
was involved in big-time dealing.
He now makes furniture.
And sees only one way forward:
getting back into the business.
Getting back into the drug trade.
Everybody in my family has
always been into the drugs trade,
so that's what I've been doing.
I followed in my uncle's footsteps.
I felt I had to do it.
To earn money.
Toni quickly became a "mochilero",
a drug courier.
The numerous smuggling routes
take him all over the jungle.
Business used to be very profitable.
Good money.
I earned 80 euros per kilo.
That equates to one thousand
four hundred euros per trip.
There used to be
several trips a week.
Today, it's just one a month,
if that.
This also means
more police officers available
for the decreasing
numbers of smugglers.
You have to watch out
for the police.
They found us once
and tried to arrest us.
They chased and shot at us.
Two of my friends were arrested.
The rest of us ran,
leaving all the drugs behind.
We got away with
just the clothes we were wearing.
Those are the risks
if you work with cocaine.
I used to feel scared.
But now, I feel nothing at all.
Not even when someone shoots.
I have lost all my fear.
Toni planned to quit
after a few years.
Then he used cocaine money
to buy a two-story house.
He never managed to quit.
But then came the crisis.
Today he's almost back to nothing.
But he's not thinking of stopping.
Yes, I'm sorry,
but people here
earn their living through coca.
Ninety percent of the valley
makes a living from it.
There are other opportunities,
but they're are not as good.
A little later, it happens.
Toni gets a job.
Just like in the "good old days".
His task:
to produce cocaine sulfate.
When he's done it,
he'll hand it over to a lab.
And then smuggle the "white powder"
to the intended destination.
Toni takes as many fresh leaves
as he can get.
And mixes them
with old ones in a "poza"
that he rents at short notice.
The leaves are mixed
with substances in the pond
to get the base
for the cocaine paste.
The "substances"
are ordinary salt and bleach.
When they combine,
they dehydrate the leaves...
And release
the cocaine active ingredient.
The salt simply helps to extract
all of the active ingredient.
We would lose a lot of money
if we didn't use it.
Plenty of water is added.
The leaves release their ingredients
even faster when treaded.
I get up to 13 kilos of paste
out of the 2.5 tons of leaves.
Nine to 10 kilos
of cocaine hydrochloride
can then be produced from it
later in the lab.
That means 240 kilos of coca leaves.
For one kilo of cocaine.
The pond basically works
like a giant teapot.
Toni is in his element.
The liquid flows along here
and is filtered.
The water then runs
through a pipe into a tank.
We then chemically process it there.
A little later...
The next crucial step
in cocaine production.
This needs gasoline.
When the liquid is in the pond,
we need to add gasoline
to the coke mixture.
I've got just under 200 liters
of it in the barrel.
The process requires care
and a lot of patience.
This is the only way to get
all the cocaine out of the mixture.
The drug sticks to gasoline.
The chemical properties of gasoline
mean it floats on water,
so producers just need to skim off
the gasoline-drug mixture.
Like fishing with a net.
Now we get rid
of all the gasoline mixture.
You can see the gasoline here
and the coca water underneath.
I just need to skim it with the wood
and get it out.
Then the residues
need to be removed.
After pouring into a barrel,
leaf residues settle to the bottom.
Only the drug
then floats on the surface...
coated in gasoline.
That now needs to be removed
with the help of ammonium.
We eventually got used to the smell,
but it still stings.
It kills your brain.
But we don't have a choice.
What else can we do?
We have to cope
with the corrosive smell.
Effects on health:
blurred vision and hallucinations.
A price that everyone here
is willing to pay
for the purest possible
cocaine paste.
Watch your hand...
A kilo of paste used to fetch
almost 700 euros.
Now it's around half.
Less the cost of leaves,
gasoline and chemicals.
We still managed to get up
to quality level three.
It's milky, not white.
This is, so to say, the drug.
The whiter the paste,
the higher its purity.
The business is illegal.
And life-threatening.
An alternative...
is being provided
by the Peruvian government.
DEVIDA, a "National Commission
for Development",
is attempting to retrain
more and more coca farmers.
In the past three years,
it has invested 45 million euros
in the VRAEM, "Cocaine Valley".
To help criminals
become regular farmers again.
And to show them
how to get maximum yields out of it.
From cocoa, for example.
You can see three shoots here
that will soon have pods.
The shoots you don't need
have to be cut off.
They're in the way.
We thin out the plants
so that the shoots with pods
get enough sunlight.
That enough air gets in.
And they won't get sick.
How do we do that?
The shoot here crosses over.
We prune it.
Why are you going to cut it off?
Because it crosses another shoot.
Yes, it crosses over and sticks out.
The plant should normally have
a circumference of one meter.
We prune it back.
Well done. What else?
-Over there, too.
-Right.
So we cut in close to the stem.
-The others too.
-The next one too.
The pods are diseased.
DEVIDA also provides support
to farmers in growing crops
other than cocoa.
However,
farmers cannot grow anything.
Decades of pesticide use
in coca cultivation
has put extreme stress
on the soils in the valley.
And farmers will be earning less
as a result of the changeover.
Economically, we are at rock bottom
due to the pandemic.
We can't send
our children to school.
We need support.
Some people just come
and pick crops without permission.
Sometimes it's just too tough.
Cocoa, bananas, and fish farming,
the market for all these
"old new opportunities" is small.
Farmers are constantly in danger
of sliding further into poverty
as a result of the changeover.
We only sell our products locally,
nowhere else.
Now we're getting support here
to grow cocoa.
And we are growing it.
But we have to make the sales
ourselves.
Prices are pretty darn low.
We need buyers on a large scale.
Anyone who will come
and buy our products.
Poor roads in the VRAEM also
make it difficult to export goods.
The last airport here
was closed decades ago...
also to minimize drug exports.
Ironic, because it meant the crisis
is dividing "Cocaine Valley"
more than ever...
Those not wanting to give up
the drug business
are producing as much cocaine
as they can sell
in the remaining labs in the jungle.
Now it's about
pounding the dry paste.
This is important
to be able to mill it afterwards.
Then more chemicals are added.
And it all ends up in a press.
An estimated two hundred
production facilities like this
exist in Peru's "Cocaine Valley."
Only a handful are active
at the moment because of the crisis.
But many are waiting
to reactivate the idle "poza".
To produce, as in peak times,
four hundred tons of cocaine
annually for the world market.
Or more.
For maximum profit.
Workers earn about
15 euros per kilogram.
Chemists constantly
renegotiate their salaries
according to market conditions.
1.763 kg.
The production process involves
constant cleaning and filtering.
At the end, the cocaine
is put into a microwave.
To eliminate
any liquids still in it.
Because "customers" pay by weight.
The outcome of the night's work:
a good kilo of pure "stuff".
The crisis in Cocaine Valley?
Right now,
it almost seems to be over.
The cocaine leaves the VRAEM
via the lab.
Toni is also responsible here.
His task:
taking the cocaine to a middleman.
It then goes
from one person to next.
A relay race with a European port
as the finishing line,
usually Rotterdam or Antwerp.
We are transporting 12 kilos.
Each of us has six.
Double that amount was normal,
but we just don't produce
that much anymore.
In the valley,
a kilo costs around 550 euros.
When we smuggle it out,
the value rises to around
800 euros per kilo.
I get around 20% of that.
In Europe,
it's sure to be more expensive.
I don't know how much.
But it's certainly worth more.
The street value in Europe,
depending on the quality,
is around 50000 euros a kilo.
What we need to watch out for
most now are thieves.
And wild animals.
We're used to it.
But we still feel the adrenaline.
Tougher competition.
The corona crisis.
Or tighter policing.
whatever happens, the mochileros,
Peru's drug couriers,
hardly ever think of quitting.
They want the old times back
more than anything else.
Just like our "insider": Jhon.
I worked in the drug trade
for 10 years.
And always think about returning.
To make money.
But it's not the right time
at the moment.
Because there isn't enough work yet.
But what else can you do here
in the valley.
Where there are no businesses,
and no jobs.
For decades, "Cocaine Valley"
survived on one thing only: coca.
And many here are hoping
it soon returns.
The "Crisis in Cocaine Valley"
could soon be over.
And farmers, producers
and drug barons
will probably be relying
on one thing again:
the trade in drugs.
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