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Global News Podcast

BBC on frontline of Colombia's drugs crackdown

Global News Podcast

BBC

News, Daily News

4.3 β€’ 8.3K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our correspondent Orla Guerin travels alongside Colombia's Jungle Commandos - an elite police force - as they seek to eradicate cocaine production in the Colombian Amazon and Andes. The defence minister told the BBC that they destroy cocaine factories "every forty minutes". Meanwhile in Washington, following months of tension, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro met President Trump for the first time to discuss efforts to combat drug trafficking and increase trade.

Also: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the late Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, is shot dead. Could Russia be readmitted to international football tournaments by Fifa? As Spain plans to legalise half a million undocumented migrants, we hear from a charity helping them. Why the people of Florida have been collecting frozen iguanas and British comedian John Bishop's real life story which inspired a Hollywood film - Is This Thing On?

The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.

Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.

Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.

0:05.4

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:11.5

I'm Paul Moss and at 430 GMT on Wednesday the 4th of February, these are our main stories.

0:18.6

President Trump and the Colombian leader, Gustavo Petro, have smoothed

0:22.5

over their differences in a meeting at the White House after months of tension and social media

0:27.9

insults. Our correspondent has a special report from the heart of Colombia's drug trade, and

0:33.5

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the late Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi,

0:38.9

has been killed in an attack on his home in Western Libya.

0:44.8

Also in this podcast, outrage in Ukraine, after the president of FIFA suggests Russia's football team

0:51.7

should be readmitted to international tournaments and their numbers

0:56.6

over the last decade have exponentially grown here and this is the first real opportunity to actually

1:03.1

call the numbers down why the people of southern Florida have been collecting frozen iguanas

1:13.8

for two people who'd previously exchanged insults,

1:17.3

the US President Donald Trump seemed to get on very well

1:19.9

with his Colombian counterpart during talks at the White House on Tuesday.

1:24.1

That may in part be because of their plan to cooperate in tackling illegal drugs, both their production and distribution.

1:32.2

Colombia remains the world's largest producer of cocaine, but President Gustavo Petro insists that his government has seized the largest amount of the drug in history.

1:42.0

If so, that's in part down to the country's special anti-narcotics

1:45.9

police force, known as the Jungle Commandos. Our correspondent Ola Geren has been in the field

1:51.5

to see how they operate. We've just landed in part of the cocaine, heartland of Colombia.

2:02.6

It can be risky. The aim is to be on the ground for the shortest time possible, no more than 10 or 15 minutes.

2:09.6

And over here you can see fresh leaves that would have been turned into paste.

...

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