How commandos are taking down the cocaine trade in Colombia

Business Insider

Colombian special forces deal with the country’s most dangerous threats, like the illegal cocaine trade. We followed how top soldiers train for some of the deadliest secret missions.

Transcript

00:00These men are preparing to take on some of the most dangerous drug gangs in the world.

00:08They are part of Colombia's Special Forces, a military unit that selects the country's

00:14best fighters for top-secret missions, like saving hostages kidnapped by cartels and rebel

00:22groups.

00:23Colombia produces 70% of the world's cocaine, and the fight to control it fueled a brutal

00:46civil war that killed nearly half a million people.

00:50The men we interviewed for this story agreed to speak with us on camera, but asked us not

00:56to use their real names.

01:00We traveled to the Colombian jungle to see how world-class soldiers trained to take on

01:07some of the most sophisticated criminal groups in the world.

01:20The Tolemaida military base sits at the heart of Colombia, and houses the country's best

01:26fighters.

01:29Like Luis, who enrolled in the army nearly two decades ago.

01:46He has since served in units all over the country.

01:55All Special Forces soldiers have to spend at least 42 days here every year.

02:02Luis started with roughly 120 of Colombia's top recruits.

02:07Most of them have since dropped out.

02:28Today, these remaining 17 head out to a nearby training field just after sunrise.

02:41They'll practice one of the hardest moves, ambushing enemies from the air.

02:47The soldiers strap on about 70 pounds of gear, including an M16 rifle.

02:54They carry everything from bullets to anti-venom, in case they end up in the jungle and get

03:00bit by poisonous snakes.

03:05This structure is designed to simulate jumping out of a helicopter, or rappelling off a building.

03:18They're climbing about 50 feet.

03:22This is called lanceros training.

03:25Fighters who complete it call themselves sky soldiers.

03:34This technique is the Colombian army's main method of infiltration.

03:40Several fighters can use one of these thick ropes at the same time, which helps them land

03:45in tight spaces in the jungle within seconds to carry out high-stakes missions, like rescuing

03:52hostages.

03:55Seventy-one people were kidnapped in the first three months of 2023, according to the Colombian

04:01defense ministry.

04:03That's more than double the abductions over the same period in 2022.

04:09Reports suggest that's because revenue from coca crops here is dropping.

04:14Production is outpacing demand.

04:17So drug traffickers are looking for an alternative source of income, demanding ransom in exchange

04:24for hostages.

04:34If they land on a building in a city, they have to descend using another technique.

04:40But walking in this position is so hard on their joints that Luis says he almost gave

04:46up the first few times he tried.

04:57Once they hit the ground, they have to get in formation right away so they don't leave

05:01themselves vulnerable.

05:05But as much as they plan, it's hard to know for sure what they're going into.

05:11The Tolemaida training base is surrounded by areas where the government has tracked

05:16a lot of rebel and cartel activity.

05:20Colombia has at least 23 drug gangs and four big rebel groups.

05:26Locals refer to cartels as the Invisibles.

05:30They say fighting them is like fighting ghosts, because their operations are discreet and

05:37widespread.

05:38The largest cartel, Clan del Golfo, controls the most important drug trafficking routes

05:44into the U.S.

05:47Its members wear the letters AGC, which stands for the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of

05:53Colombia.

05:55They have their own bylaws and act as police in some rural areas, where they control entire

06:02towns.

06:03Today, official membership in gangs, rebel groups, and cartels is higher than ever.

06:12Cartels work around the clock tipping them off.

06:16And they are notorious for killing anyone who opposes them.

06:21At least 134 community members were reportedly assassinated in the first eight months of

06:282023 alone.

06:32So soldiers say keeping their missions top secret is key to staying alive.

06:39This battalion wouldn't disclose specifics about what it's preparing for.

06:56They go on 25 to 40 missions a year.

07:02Some can last three weeks.

07:12They have to learn to launch weapons, like these 40mm grenades, to blow up rooms.

07:31The red and blue dots indicate danger and safety zones, which help the soldiers determine

07:38how they'll navigate the course.

08:01They have to throw the grenade at least 65 feet to avoid getting hit by the blast.

08:22But they're also running with these explosives, and the injuries can be permanent.

08:30Colombia has been waging war on drugs since the 1970s, when small-scale cocaine producers

08:37began smuggling suitcases lined with the white powder into the US.

08:43By the mid-1980s, about 70 tons of cocaine were making their way into the US every year.

08:50And as demand for it boomed there, it became clear that this would be a lucrative industry

08:56here in Colombia, too.

08:59One that now employs at least 400,000 people across the country, and rakes in roughly $18

09:07billion annually.

09:11Over the years, narco-empires grew so rich and so big, they could afford to build their

09:17own submarines, and even hire their own pilots.

09:22Colombian police were also tasked with taking them down.

09:27Oscar Naranjo, the former vice president of Colombia, remembers those days.

09:41As a police officer, he played a big part in taking down the notorious Medellín Cartel

09:47in 1993, run by Pablo Escobar.

09:53And the Cali Cartel, which ruled the cocaine trade in the 1990s.

10:09But even after Escobar's arrest, and the fall of Colombia's biggest cartels, drug

10:16trafficking continued.

10:18It was mostly led by the FARC, a communist rebel group that at one point controlled over

10:24half of the country's coca crops.

10:27Mainly people from rural areas had joined the group in the 1960s to fight against the

10:33growing wealth gap between Colombia's rich and poor.

10:38That dispute turned into a civil war that lasted more than 50 years.

10:43Finally, in 2016, the group struck a peace deal with the state and disbanded.

10:49Control over coca production splintered.

10:53Smaller groups took over, making it harder to hold any one party accountable.

10:59And even though the government has since demolished neighborhoods like El Bronx in Bogota, where

11:04drug gangs thrived, Naranjo says the problem runs deep.

11:13But even government officials like him have been accused of taking bribes from drug smugglers.

11:31Naranjo has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.

11:35And despite the claims, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration named him an honorary special

11:41agent in 2010.

11:43The United States is Colombia's main funder in its war on drugs.

11:48And since 1999, it's spent over $10 billion on counter-narcotics operations here.

11:56That's because most of this cocaine ends up in the United States, where in 2022, nearly

12:0430,000 people died of cocaine-related overdoses.

12:09Colombia has also seen its share of death from cartel violence.

12:13The war on drugs and the ongoing civil conflict here killed over 450,000 people between 1985

12:21and 2018, and forced nearly 8 million more out of their homes.

12:28And soldiers say the rebels and narco-criminals involved in the war won't spare anyone that

12:34gets in their way.

12:39Eduardo is one of the most experienced fighters here.

13:02He will have to leave this unit soon, because he's getting close to the retirement age

13:06of 38.

13:09Everyone who goes on these kinds of missions has to be in top fighting shape.

13:17Eduardo trains beside the other soldiers, but he also helps run the second half of today's

13:23exercise.

13:24They're training in the jungle.

13:37They've set up makeshift targets all over to help them practice different scenarios.

13:44Most of their missions play out in terrain similar to this.

13:49They're walking miles in scorching heat.

13:52Cars are loud and can't reach many of the places they need to go.

14:01Once soldiers have a target in sight, they usually aim at the chest to injure but not

14:06kill them.

14:14That way, they can target even more offenders who come to their help.

14:28The soldiers make these sounds together to practice shooting in sync.

14:43But the key is to move in silence to go undetected.

14:48So they have to anticipate each other's moves.

14:53They file like this, because one of them always has to have the other's backs.

15:00They're striking moving targets, so they have to be ready to get in formation right away.

15:11But things may not always go as planned.

15:16So they have safe words.

15:41And if one of them is gunned down, they'll never leave them behind.

15:46There are many relatives who ask me, how many people have you shot?

15:56I say, why do you always ask that?

15:58Why don't you ask me how many people I've helped?

16:02There are many groups outside the law.

16:04At the moment, the conflict is more tedious.

16:12Since the 1980s, cocaine producers have set up operations in remote places across Colombia

16:18to avoid getting caught.

16:21At secret hideouts like these, they turn coca leaves into paste and into powder.

16:29The government has tried to systematically wipe out cocaine production by ripping out

16:34the crops.

16:36Local police units also track down and destroy illegal refineries that produce gasoline,

16:43an important ingredient in cocaine.

16:52But they pop up faster than they can be taken out, because they're so rustic and easy to

16:58build.

16:59And so fights in remote areas like these are inevitable.

17:05Patches on soldiers' uniforms can give away their family names and allow someone

17:11to retaliate.

17:13Still, Eduardo carries some mementos.

17:23Even though these soldiers say they're trying to help their country, they aren't always

17:29considered the good guys here.

17:35More than 200,000 families across Colombia depend on coca farming to keep their own families

17:41alive.

17:43Like Francisco, who has been growing it for more than 23 years.

17:56He lives in Nariño, a remote part of the country where there are hardly any other well-paying

18:02jobs.

18:20The government introduced a crop substitution program in 2016.

18:25And a UN report found that about 100,000 families signed up.

18:30But that most of them didn't receive the full promised payments.

18:56The agency in charge of the program told Business Insider that it's working with the

19:01families to find a compromise.

19:04But it didn't share specifics.

19:07Unlike other crops, like coffee and plantains, coca can be harvested up to six times a year.

19:15The plant now covers five times as much land as it did in the days of Pablo Escobar.

19:22The country's leftist president, Gustavo Pedro, wants to legalize cocaine.

19:27But the U.S. does not support that move.

19:45Back at the base, the men are done training for the day.

19:58But Eduardo tries to call his wife every day when he's away.

20:05Even though he's fighting for Colombia, he doesn't want to live here forever.

20:22Luis plans to keep fighting for a while.

20:46But he says it would be unrealistic to dream of peace and of a Colombia without cartels

20:53or cocaine.

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