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Peru's Cocaine Trail

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coca plantations in the Amazon jungle to the young European mules

:00:00.:00:00.

who try to smuggle cocaine to Europe.

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Carew's anti`drug squad attacked illegal cocaine production in the

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Amazonian jungle. `` per. They blow craters along the area used by drug

:00:21.:00:30.

traffickers. It's noisy and dramatic but isn't effective. Increasing

:00:31.:00:33.

numbers of desperate Europeans are prepared to take the risk of

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smuggling cocaine out of Peru. You lose your family, you lose friends,

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you lose your life. And thousands of desperate people in Peru depend on

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cocaine production to survive. The Peruvian government is spending

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millions of dollars on eradication. But is this the way to tackle the

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problem? This is not a military problem. We need to talk in

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economic, social terms. This valley in the Amazon jungle,

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where every clearing is devoted to the growth of the coca plant. Peru

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now grows more cocoa leaf than any country in the world, producing

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hundreds of tons of cocaine is every year for export. `` coca leaf. The

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anti` drugs police squad arrived as part of the eradication programme.

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They start pulling the routes from the rich soil. It's a hard plant,

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which my left to grow, produces for crops a year. It provides work and

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money for the locals here, where there is little else.

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The coca workers have fled by now, so why do the eradicate his need

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guns? The team moved on to a makeshift

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factory, hidden in the thick jungle. Equipped with all the ingredients

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for cocaine production. The maceration hits are filled with dry

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coca leaves, water, and petrol and crushed by foot to make coca paste.

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Finally, they add acetone and sulphuric acid to obtain cocaine

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chloride, the cocaine in white paper form, ready for export.

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Alongside the noxious ingredients, there is evidence of a hastily

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abandoned camp, suggesting there were 14 locals working in dangerous

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and uncomfortable conditions. Nonetheless, they can earn more here

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than they would get from farming any other crop but they won't be coming

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back. The drug is transported overland to

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the rigours, where it is loaded onto boats and taken to a network of

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illegal airstrips, built along the banks of the rivers, like the one

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here on the right point `` to the rivers. Light aircraft, which can

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carry up to 400 kilos of cocaine at a time, comes from neighbouring

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Libya to collect it. `` Bolivia The pilots who landed the plane is

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here at night are said to earn millions of dollars. But the team

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are now prepared to blow craters along the runway to prevent them

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from using this one again, for now. It's noisy and dramatic but is it

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effective? For everyone narco airstrip honour as they call it

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here, that is destroyed by the Peruvian police, there are dozens

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more in the area which remained operational and the drug teams will

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be back here to repair it. It will take on the a few weeks to do that

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and for the airstrip to be put into use.

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The anti`drug squad are attacking a fraction of the problem. Such is the

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strength of the drug barons in the country that there are areas where

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coca is grown in Peru but the squad can't even enter. `` where the

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squad. There is no doubt about the commitment and bravery of these men

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but they are not stopping the flow of campaign `` cocaine out of the

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region. Several times a day, scheduled flights from the coca

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growing areas in the North land 500 kilometres to the south end the

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country's capital, Lima. A passenger disembarked at the domestic terminal

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and checks in for an international flight to Madrid. The dogs are on

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patrol tonight. Four kilos of cocaine are found in

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the passenger's case. It is clear that it had been packed by experts.

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The 25 `year`old Spaniard is arrested.

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He says he was recruited in Amsterdam and had been promised

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$13,000 if he got through. The drug would have sold for 50

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times that amount on the streets of Madrid. It was a moment of madness,

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he tells me. I had lost my job and needed the money but I now face

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years in jail. The police he admit that 90% of the

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drug mules leaving Peru get away with it. The odds are good at, if

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you get caught, there's the of up to 15 years in jail. Many desperate

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Europeans are taking the risk. With 50% unemployment among the young in

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some areas of Spain, Spaniards topped the list of Europeans who

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were arrested at Lima airport last year.

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Visiting day at this present in Lima, where the majority of

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prisoners are being held for a drug`related crime. `` this prison.

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Conditions are tough, especially for foreigners who don't have family to

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bring them food, medicine and even clean water.

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Two British girls, Michaella Connolly and Melissa Reid, are among

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the present resident population. They were arrested at Lima airport

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in August carrying 11 kilos of cocaine. They are currently in one

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of the worst prisons in Carew, according to another drug mule `` in

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Peru. It's very cramped. You can not bear

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to breed there. Really. You feel like a rat in an age. `` air to

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breathe. Nicole is a hairdresser from Germany, who is currently

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living in a convent in Lima and helping with charitable work. She

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served her prison term but can't go back home because she can't afford

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to pay the outstanding fine demanded by the courts. Her life went wrong,

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she says, after she had a nervous breakdown in Germany and fell badly

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into debt. Before I had problems with money in my country. So, I

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wanted to earn money fast and easily. How much were you going to

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earn for it? 10,000 euros for normally two kilos. I had three

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kilos on my body but I didn't know that. I had a swimming suit for

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waterskiing and inside it was all over with drugs, packs of cocaine.

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He touched me and, yes... Felt something? Yes, of course. Then she

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brings me to a rest in the airport. He tests and glue stick and it was

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cocaine. I said, yes. I have cocaine. `` blue stick. Nicole's

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smother `` smuggling method was so amateurish that it could be she was

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set up. Another mule has also served his prison term. But with no means

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of supporting himself, that alone buying to get back home, he has been

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living rough on the beach. Thinking back to the policeman who arrested

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him, he believed he was definitely set up. He took out a list and said

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this lady is travelling at such and such a time, it was a list of four

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people. He said every single one of them will be carrying drugs. So,

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they know beforehand who is and who isn't a suspect. I was a small fish.

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They were waiting for me. And I know this from many people who have been

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caught for Marko trafficking. They let the small fish get caught on

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papers. `` narco. So that the guy who has a large amount of drugs gets

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through. He claims he fell into the trap because he was desperate. His

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wife had died and he needed money to educate his daughter when he was

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approached by a drug trafficker. He approached by a drug trafficker He

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said, with money. No problem. You can go on a working holiday. One

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week, you will be back, you will have no more problems. They were

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going to pay me $10,000, US. I thought, well, what have I got to

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lose? He got four years in jail followed by a year living rough. In

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followed by a year living rough In which time, he says, he's learned a

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lot about how the drug barons dominate this country. Everything is

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an inside job. They have got people in the police, they have got people

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at the airports, they have got people in organised crime. All of

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them are on the payroll. Drugs is the economy of this country.

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Construction and corruption are everywhere in Peru today, and people

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here tell you that two activities are intertwined. The building

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industry is just one of the businesses used by the drug barons

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to launder money with impunity. You don't get the violence in the

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streets of Lima compared with the cities of Colombia or Mexico. I

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asked the man who used to be in charge of the anti` drugs programme

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here, why. We solved the thing is not with lead, but with silver. In

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Colombia maybe things are sorted another way, but in Peru we do

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business, the police do business, prosecutors do business, the police

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do business and politicians as well. If you are rich enough in order to

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avoid prison, it can be possible. And the corruption here reaches to

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the very top, according to one of the rue's most senior judges.

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TRANSLATION: `` the rue `` Pero. The government would argue that this

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is what they're doing. High`profile eradication programmes which

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journalists are invited to fill. Their critics say that tackling the

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problem of drugs in Peru, like a military operation, is not working.

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One of the few things that we have learned in the last 30 years is that

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this can't be understood as a war. Ricardo was fired from his job as

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the country's drugs chief because he claims the government don't want to

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hear what he has to say. Besides the farm, a kilo of pure cocaine costs

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$800. When that same kilo arrives in Lima it costs $2500, $3000. When

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that same kilo arrives, let's say to London, it would cost ?25,000. And

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if you understand that that kilo will convert immediately... You

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would have ?50,000. We need to talk in economic, social terms. For those

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that have been excluded from the drugs business... It is the way of

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being part of the globalised economy in the world. The town of

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constitutionally on in the cocoa growing area. A road and bridge were

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built here when the idea was to make this town in the middle of the

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Amazonian jungle the capital of the rue. But the idea didn't catch on.

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Instead the drug Mafias poured across the bridge and made this

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their capital. `` the rue. At night the booming town has the full

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complement of nightclubs and bars expected of a drug fuelled economy.

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Their clients are the men who grow the coca leaf, manufacture cocaine,

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and build The Jungle airstrips. No wonder the girls tell you business

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is good. But Carlos an ecologist and poet,

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remembers the nostalgia in the paradise he found when he moved here

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30 years ago before the drug barons. A memory reflected in his

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poetry. He took me to the cemetery and

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lamented over the number of recent dead.

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The deaths, he says, are due to locals fighting for their share of

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the drugs business. Where local people are excluded from

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the drugs business, you hear only complaints. Matilda Ramires, a small

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farmer living on the outskirts of the town, was forced by the

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eradication programme to give up growing the coca leaf.

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No wonder so many farmers who have their plants torn out moved to the

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areas where the eradicate his can't reach them in order to plant the

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cocoa leaf again. `` had. Those who argue that eradication isn't working

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say cocaine production can only be tackled by helping the small farmer

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to not grow cocoa. The military style eradication operation gets

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four times as much money as that given to farmers to develop

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alternative crops. I think we should think about paying

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directly to them for every single gram of cocaine that is not produced

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by them. A kind of health preventive tax that should be paid by European

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countries, and that will significantly improve the likelihood

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of thousands of people that are now involved in this economy. We need to

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give them their prices for their cocoa, their coffee, and any other

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legal product that is done in this difficult area. In the absence of

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such an agreement between the rue and the drug consuming nations of

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Europe, the drugs trade looks set to continue and even flourish. ``

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Peru. More foreign mules are entering the country and the unlucky

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ones will end up in prison. The two British girls, Melissa Reid and

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Michaela Connelly, had been in jail for four months now awaiting trial.

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After their latest court appearance, their lawyer said they might be

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offered a reduced term if they give the police information about those

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who send them here. Nicole, the former drug mule, advises them not

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to `` sent. This is a very dangerous business. He can kill me in the

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jail. So I never say the names. I never say anything. I say it is my

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fault. I have not to tell this and all the girls have to do this, it is

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very dangerous to say the name. And your sentence doesn't go less when

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you say something, it is a lie. You lose your family, you lose friends,

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you lose your life. You lose all. And the men and women sending you

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hear are not interested in you `` here. Don't do it. This was my first

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time and my last time. That amount of money can't buy your freedom. I

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of money can't buy your freedom I have lost five years of my life here

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in Peru. It is now my fourth Christmas here. When I come now,

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Christmas here. When I come now yes, I want to be with my family.

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But I cannot say what day I can go home.

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Nicole and Gavin may not have benefited from the drugs business.

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But too many people in and outside the country now depend on the cocoa

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leaf of Peru for there to be much prospect of an end to the trade in

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cocaine. Even a senior police officer here has admitted that

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trying to stop cocaine production with helicopters and explosives is

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