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Peru is the world's largest producer of cocaine.

I'm Linda Presley and for this week's assignment

I've been to meet some of the young Peruvians employed to transport this illicit narcotic, the drug mules of the Andes.

There's no bridge to cross this part of the river Apurimac, so you have to put your vehicle

onto a motorised raft to get from one side of the other and

it's a very picturesque scene on either side of the river, the lush tropical hills, rise up

into the clouds. This area here is about 800 meters above

sea level on average and that makes it a prime location for growing coca.

I'm going coca.

I started working with drugs when I was 14.

Sometimes you just don't have enough help at home and you need the money.

I got to know the boss and I was hired to produce cocaine from the cocholith.

I did that until I was 17.

Then I began transporting the drug myself.

I'll call this teenager, Danielle.

He's an illegal backpacker, a mochillero in Spanish,

one of thousands of poor young Peruvians who risk their lives to hike a cocaine cargo

through jungle terrain and out of this remote valley. Before my visit I'd read that

Mocilleros travel together in groups of 10 or 20.

...