Cocaine Inc. (Pt 3) - The 64 Million Percent Mark-up
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As cocaine is smuggled out of South America it multiplies in value, driving people to extremes.
Stephen Drill follows the trail to Mexico and uncovers how the numbers used by law enforcement do not add up.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In my opinion, it's stupid to look at cocaine trade on a national level, because this is an international trade. |
| 0:12.0 | It's just a commodity that has to go from A to B. Actually, it works like regular trade, but it has a dark side to it as well. |
| 0:23.2 | Oh, okay. Just a recommendation, you know, the labels with the information, |
| 0:32.0 | it's not seen because that's judicial evidence. |
| 0:34.4 | Yes. |
| 0:35.1 | Okay. |
| 0:37.0 | Cartagena is a city on the north coast of Colombia. |
| 0:40.3 | It's picturesque, full of cobbled streets and brightly colored colonial buildings that look |
| 0:45.8 | out over the Caribbean Sea. |
| 0:48.3 | Centuries ago, wooden ships would arrive here to be loaded with gold bound for Europe. |
| 1:03.8 | Today, Stephen Drill is at the city's port, where hundreds of container ships still arrive every year, but to be filled with another kind of precious cargo. |
| 1:12.6 | Right now, Stephen's been shown into a locked room, which is mostly empty, except for a huge |
| 1:18.6 | pile of bags, stuffed full of cocaine, containing the small mountain of drugs that has been seized |
| 1:23.6 | by customs in the past month. |
| 1:26.6 | Yesterday they seized 800 kilograms in the ceiling of two containers. |
| 1:35.3 | Think about that for a moment, 800 kilograms of cocaine, seized in a single day. |
| 1:43.3 | And no one seems to think that's unusual. |
| 1:46.0 | One of the customs officials goes over and picks out a black duffel bag, |
| 1:51.0 | drags it back across the floor. |
| 1:54.0 | These are what are the tools, |
| 1:59.0 | are the packages, |
| 2:00.0 | usually 50, 60 kilograms. |
... |
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