:00:00. > :00:00.coca plantations in the Amazon jungle to the young European mules
:00:00. > :00:12.who try to smuggle cocaine to Europe.
:00:13. > :00:20.Carew's anti`drug squad attacked illegal cocaine production in the
:00:21. > :00:30.Amazonian jungle. `` per. They blow craters along the area used by drug
:00:31. > :00:33.traffickers. It's noisy and dramatic but isn't effective. Increasing
:00:34. > :00:40.numbers of desperate Europeans are prepared to take the risk of
:00:41. > :00:47.smuggling cocaine out of Peru. You lose your family, you lose friends,
:00:48. > :00:48.you lose your life. And thousands of desperate people in Peru depend on
:00:49. > :01:04.cocaine production to survive. The Peruvian government is spending
:01:05. > :01:10.millions of dollars on eradication. But is this the way to tackle the
:01:11. > :01:13.problem? This is not a military problem. We need to talk in
:01:14. > :01:43.economic, social terms. This valley in the Amazon jungle,
:01:44. > :01:51.where every clearing is devoted to the growth of the coca plant. Peru
:01:52. > :01:55.now grows more cocoa leaf than any country in the world, producing
:01:56. > :02:02.hundreds of tons of cocaine is every year for export. `` coca leaf. The
:02:03. > :02:11.anti` drugs police squad arrived as part of the eradication programme.
:02:12. > :02:18.They start pulling the routes from the rich soil. It's a hard plant,
:02:19. > :02:22.which my left to grow, produces for crops a year. It provides work and
:02:23. > :02:40.money for the locals here, where there is little else.
:02:41. > :02:43.The coca workers have fled by now, so why do the eradicate his need
:02:44. > :03:17.guns? The team moved on to a makeshift
:03:18. > :03:20.factory, hidden in the thick jungle. Equipped with all the ingredients
:03:21. > :03:27.for cocaine production. The maceration hits are filled with dry
:03:28. > :03:49.coca leaves, water, and petrol and crushed by foot to make coca paste.
:03:50. > :03:58.Finally, they add acetone and sulphuric acid to obtain cocaine
:03:59. > :04:11.chloride, the cocaine in white paper form, ready for export.
:04:12. > :04:38.Alongside the noxious ingredients, there is evidence of a hastily
:04:39. > :04:42.abandoned camp, suggesting there were 14 locals working in dangerous
:04:43. > :04:48.and uncomfortable conditions. Nonetheless, they can earn more here
:04:49. > :04:49.than they would get from farming any other crop but they won't be coming
:04:50. > :05:04.back. The drug is transported overland to
:05:05. > :05:08.the rigours, where it is loaded onto boats and taken to a network of
:05:09. > :05:12.illegal airstrips, built along the banks of the rivers, like the one
:05:13. > :05:19.here on the right point `` to the rivers. Light aircraft, which can
:05:20. > :05:21.carry up to 400 kilos of cocaine at a time, comes from neighbouring
:05:22. > :06:08.Libya to collect it. `` Bolivia The pilots who landed the plane is
:06:09. > :06:11.here at night are said to earn millions of dollars. But the team
:06:12. > :06:13.are now prepared to blow craters along the runway to prevent them
:06:14. > :06:34.from using this one again, for now. It's noisy and dramatic but is it
:06:35. > :06:37.effective? For everyone narco airstrip honour as they call it
:06:38. > :06:41.here, that is destroyed by the Peruvian police, there are dozens
:06:42. > :06:44.more in the area which remained operational and the drug teams will
:06:45. > :06:48.be back here to repair it. It will take on the a few weeks to do that
:06:49. > :06:55.and for the airstrip to be put into use.
:06:56. > :06:58.The anti`drug squad are attacking a fraction of the problem. Such is the
:06:59. > :07:02.strength of the drug barons in the country that there are areas where
:07:03. > :07:08.coca is grown in Peru but the squad can't even enter. `` where the
:07:09. > :07:11.squad. There is no doubt about the commitment and bravery of these men
:07:12. > :07:24.but they are not stopping the flow of campaign `` cocaine out of the
:07:25. > :07:29.region. Several times a day, scheduled flights from the coca
:07:30. > :07:37.growing areas in the North land 500 kilometres to the south end the
:07:38. > :07:40.country's capital, Lima. A passenger disembarked at the domestic terminal
:07:41. > :07:44.and checks in for an international flight to Madrid. The dogs are on
:07:45. > :08:00.patrol tonight. Four kilos of cocaine are found in
:08:01. > :08:06.the passenger's case. It is clear that it had been packed by experts.
:08:07. > :08:11.The 25 `year`old Spaniard is arrested.
:08:12. > :08:15.He says he was recruited in Amsterdam and had been promised
:08:16. > :08:24.$13,000 if he got through. The drug would have sold for 50
:08:25. > :08:33.times that amount on the streets of Madrid. It was a moment of madness,
:08:34. > :08:34.he tells me. I had lost my job and needed the money but I now face
:08:35. > :08:47.years in jail. The police he admit that 90% of the
:08:48. > :08:53.drug mules leaving Peru get away with it. The odds are good at, if
:08:54. > :09:03.you get caught, there's the of up to 15 years in jail. Many desperate
:09:04. > :09:07.Europeans are taking the risk. With 50% unemployment among the young in
:09:08. > :09:11.some areas of Spain, Spaniards topped the list of Europeans who
:09:12. > :09:18.were arrested at Lima airport last year.
:09:19. > :09:25.Visiting day at this present in Lima, where the majority of
:09:26. > :09:45.prisoners are being held for a drug`related crime. `` this prison.
:09:46. > :09:50.Conditions are tough, especially for foreigners who don't have family to
:09:51. > :10:00.bring them food, medicine and even clean water.
:10:01. > :10:07.Two British girls, Michaella Connolly and Melissa Reid, are among
:10:08. > :10:10.the present resident population. They were arrested at Lima airport
:10:11. > :10:17.in August carrying 11 kilos of cocaine. They are currently in one
:10:18. > :10:19.of the worst prisons in Carew, according to another drug mule `` in
:10:20. > :10:31.Peru. It's very cramped. You can not bear
:10:32. > :10:41.to breed there. Really. You feel like a rat in an age. `` air to
:10:42. > :10:44.breathe. Nicole is a hairdresser from Germany, who is currently
:10:45. > :10:50.living in a convent in Lima and helping with charitable work. She
:10:51. > :10:54.served her prison term but can't go back home because she can't afford
:10:55. > :11:02.to pay the outstanding fine demanded by the courts. Her life went wrong,
:11:03. > :11:12.she says, after she had a nervous breakdown in Germany and fell badly
:11:13. > :11:16.into debt. Before I had problems with money in my country. So, I
:11:17. > :11:23.wanted to earn money fast and easily. How much were you going to
:11:24. > :11:29.earn for it? 10,000 euros for normally two kilos. I had three
:11:30. > :11:38.kilos on my body but I didn't know that. I had a swimming suit for
:11:39. > :11:43.waterskiing and inside it was all over with drugs, packs of cocaine.
:11:44. > :11:52.He touched me and, yes... Felt something? Yes, of course. Then she
:11:53. > :11:56.brings me to a rest in the airport. He tests and glue stick and it was
:11:57. > :12:06.cocaine. I said, yes. I have cocaine. `` blue stick. Nicole's
:12:07. > :12:10.smother `` smuggling method was so amateurish that it could be she was
:12:11. > :12:15.set up. Another mule has also served his prison term. But with no means
:12:16. > :12:19.of supporting himself, that alone buying to get back home, he has been
:12:20. > :12:24.living rough on the beach. Thinking back to the policeman who arrested
:12:25. > :12:30.him, he believed he was definitely set up. He took out a list and said
:12:31. > :12:35.this lady is travelling at such and such a time, it was a list of four
:12:36. > :12:41.people. He said every single one of them will be carrying drugs. So,
:12:42. > :12:48.they know beforehand who is and who isn't a suspect. I was a small fish.
:12:49. > :12:54.They were waiting for me. And I know this from many people who have been
:12:55. > :13:02.caught for Marko trafficking. They let the small fish get caught on
:13:03. > :13:06.papers. `` narco. So that the guy who has a large amount of drugs gets
:13:07. > :13:11.through. He claims he fell into the trap because he was desperate. His
:13:12. > :13:13.wife had died and he needed money to educate his daughter when he was
:13:14. > :13:20.approached by a drug trafficker. He approached by a drug trafficker He
:13:21. > :13:24.said, with money. No problem. You can go on a working holiday. One
:13:25. > :13:30.week, you will be back, you will have no more problems. They were
:13:31. > :13:39.going to pay me $10,000, US. I thought, well, what have I got to
:13:40. > :13:42.lose? He got four years in jail followed by a year living rough. In
:13:43. > :13:46.followed by a year living rough In which time, he says, he's learned a
:13:47. > :13:53.lot about how the drug barons dominate this country. Everything is
:13:54. > :13:56.an inside job. They have got people in the police, they have got people
:13:57. > :14:01.at the airports, they have got people in organised crime. All of
:14:02. > :14:08.them are on the payroll. Drugs is the economy of this country.
:14:09. > :14:15.Construction and corruption are everywhere in Peru today, and people
:14:16. > :14:18.here tell you that two activities are intertwined. The building
:14:19. > :14:24.industry is just one of the businesses used by the drug barons
:14:25. > :14:27.to launder money with impunity. You don't get the violence in the
:14:28. > :14:32.streets of Lima compared with the cities of Colombia or Mexico. I
:14:33. > :14:42.asked the man who used to be in charge of the anti` drugs programme
:14:43. > :14:47.here, why. We solved the thing is not with lead, but with silver. In
:14:48. > :14:55.Colombia maybe things are sorted another way, but in Peru we do
:14:56. > :15:02.business, the police do business, prosecutors do business, the police
:15:03. > :15:06.do business and politicians as well. If you are rich enough in order to
:15:07. > :15:10.avoid prison, it can be possible. And the corruption here reaches to
:15:11. > :15:13.the very top, according to one of the rue's most senior judges.
:15:14. > :16:09.TRANSLATION: `` the rue `` Pero. The government would argue that this
:16:10. > :16:12.is what they're doing. High`profile eradication programmes which
:16:13. > :16:17.journalists are invited to fill. Their critics say that tackling the
:16:18. > :16:24.problem of drugs in Peru, like a military operation, is not working.
:16:25. > :16:35.One of the few things that we have learned in the last 30 years is that
:16:36. > :16:40.this can't be understood as a war. Ricardo was fired from his job as
:16:41. > :16:47.the country's drugs chief because he claims the government don't want to
:16:48. > :16:56.hear what he has to say. Besides the farm, a kilo of pure cocaine costs
:16:57. > :17:04.$800. When that same kilo arrives in Lima it costs $2500, $3000. When
:17:05. > :17:14.that same kilo arrives, let's say to London, it would cost ?25,000. And
:17:15. > :17:22.if you understand that that kilo will convert immediately... You
:17:23. > :17:28.would have ?50,000. We need to talk in economic, social terms. For those
:17:29. > :17:33.that have been excluded from the drugs business... It is the way of
:17:34. > :17:39.being part of the globalised economy in the world. The town of
:17:40. > :17:46.constitutionally on in the cocoa growing area. A road and bridge were
:17:47. > :17:50.built here when the idea was to make this town in the middle of the
:17:51. > :17:59.Amazonian jungle the capital of the rue. But the idea didn't catch on.
:18:00. > :18:06.Instead the drug Mafias poured across the bridge and made this
:18:07. > :18:10.their capital. `` the rue. At night the booming town has the full
:18:11. > :18:15.complement of nightclubs and bars expected of a drug fuelled economy.
:18:16. > :18:21.Their clients are the men who grow the coca leaf, manufacture cocaine,
:18:22. > :18:22.and build The Jungle airstrips. No wonder the girls tell you business
:18:23. > :18:54.is good. But Carlos an ecologist and poet,
:18:55. > :18:57.remembers the nostalgia in the paradise he found when he moved here
:18:58. > :18:59.30 years ago before the drug barons. A memory reflected in his
:19:00. > :19:18.poetry. He took me to the cemetery and
:19:19. > :19:44.lamented over the number of recent dead.
:19:45. > :19:48.The deaths, he says, are due to locals fighting for their share of
:19:49. > :20:26.the drugs business. Where local people are excluded from
:20:27. > :20:33.the drugs business, you hear only complaints. Matilda Ramires, a small
:20:34. > :20:37.farmer living on the outskirts of the town, was forced by the
:20:38. > :21:22.eradication programme to give up growing the coca leaf.
:21:23. > :21:29.No wonder so many farmers who have their plants torn out moved to the
:21:30. > :21:41.areas where the eradicate his can't reach them in order to plant the
:21:42. > :21:44.cocoa leaf again. `` had. Those who argue that eradication isn't working
:21:45. > :21:53.say cocaine production can only be tackled by helping the small farmer
:21:54. > :21:55.to not grow cocoa. The military style eradication operation gets
:21:56. > :21:57.four times as much money as that given to farmers to develop
:21:58. > :22:09.alternative crops. I think we should think about paying
:22:10. > :22:16.directly to them for every single gram of cocaine that is not produced
:22:17. > :22:25.by them. A kind of health preventive tax that should be paid by European
:22:26. > :22:28.countries, and that will significantly improve the likelihood
:22:29. > :22:38.of thousands of people that are now involved in this economy. We need to
:22:39. > :22:44.give them their prices for their cocoa, their coffee, and any other
:22:45. > :22:51.legal product that is done in this difficult area. In the absence of
:22:52. > :22:56.such an agreement between the rue and the drug consuming nations of
:22:57. > :23:02.Europe, the drugs trade looks set to continue and even flourish. ``
:23:03. > :23:10.Peru. More foreign mules are entering the country and the unlucky
:23:11. > :23:13.ones will end up in prison. The two British girls, Melissa Reid and
:23:14. > :23:18.Michaela Connelly, had been in jail for four months now awaiting trial.
:23:19. > :23:23.After their latest court appearance, their lawyer said they might be
:23:24. > :23:28.offered a reduced term if they give the police information about those
:23:29. > :23:35.who send them here. Nicole, the former drug mule, advises them not
:23:36. > :23:40.to `` sent. This is a very dangerous business. He can kill me in the
:23:41. > :23:49.jail. So I never say the names. I never say anything. I say it is my
:23:50. > :23:55.fault. I have not to tell this and all the girls have to do this, it is
:23:56. > :24:04.very dangerous to say the name. And your sentence doesn't go less when
:24:05. > :24:12.you say something, it is a lie. You lose your family, you lose friends,
:24:13. > :24:18.you lose your life. You lose all. And the men and women sending you
:24:19. > :24:24.hear are not interested in you `` here. Don't do it. This was my first
:24:25. > :24:27.time and my last time. That amount of money can't buy your freedom. I
:24:28. > :24:31.of money can't buy your freedom I have lost five years of my life here
:24:32. > :24:36.in Peru. It is now my fourth Christmas here. When I come now,
:24:37. > :24:48.Christmas here. When I come now yes, I want to be with my family.
:24:49. > :24:53.But I cannot say what day I can go home.
:24:54. > :25:00.Nicole and Gavin may not have benefited from the drugs business.
:25:01. > :25:05.But too many people in and outside the country now depend on the cocoa
:25:06. > :25:11.leaf of Peru for there to be much prospect of an end to the trade in
:25:12. > :25:15.cocaine. Even a senior police officer here has admitted that
:25:16. > :25:17.trying to stop cocaine production with helicopters and explosives is