vice-news 10 jaar geleden

Why Colombia is losing the Cocaine War

Colombia's cocaine production dropped after Pablo Escobar's death. But today, it is soaring again. The South American country has once again become the world's leading producer of the drug. This documentary follows the trails of the cocaine cartels.

In Colombia, the heirs to Pablo Escobar's drug empire are conducting business as usual - though with a somewhat lower profile.


Today's Medellin drug cartels are highly structured and run much like multinational corporations. But violent gangs operating in the city's slums provide the muscle; known as combos, they’ve carved Medellin into fiefdoms, imposing invisible borders between gang territory - borders that, when ignored, often get people killed.


VICE News traveled to Medellin to meet gang members - along with top cartel leaders and assassins - who revealed the inner workings of the city's modern-day cocaine industry.

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