Escobar is wanted by American authorities for his alleged role in smuggling thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States. Dope s1e1: In This Business You Have No Friends Only Enemies, news, Netflix 2018
Pablo Escobar was the first to use the Caribbean to traffic cocaine into the USA. Now with US demand for cocaine soaring, trafficking through the Caribbean is exploding once again. ibid. captions
The amount of cocaine seized by customs in Florida rose by 61% in 2016. ibid.
In 2016 smugglers shipped up to 120 tons of cocaine into the Dominican Republic. ibid.
A kilo of cocaine in the Dominican Republic: $10,000. ibid.
In 2016 AMO seized 37,627 lbs of cocaine in Puerto Rico and surrounding waters. ibid.
Puerto Rico has been used as a stepping stone for cocaine headed to the US mainland for decades. ibid.
In Oakland, California, a drug war is raging. Sheriffs and dealers are locked in a daily struggle. The reason … cocaine. Dope s2e1: America’s Cup of Coffee
The city’s downtown is on the up. Dot.com companies are moving in, bringing workers with expensive tastes. New bars and clubs are opening in the centre. ibid.
Cocaine use in the US is at a 10 year high. ibid.
Spain’s first city is braced for an avalanche of cocaine. The source: Colombia. The clan Del Golfo control Colombia’s lucrative coke market. Dope s3e2: God, Forgive Me For This
Coca can be harvested six times a year. ibid.
In 2017 Colombia’s cocaine yield rose 31% to an estimated 1,500 tons. ibid.
Los Angeles, California, cocaine capital of the west coast. Federal agents pursue traffickers by land and sea. While dealers fight to cash in. Dope s3e3: No Face, No Case
San Ysidro is one of four key drug corridors into the US from Mexico. ibid.
If you knew where two million dollars was buried in the ground, would you dig this shit up? Fuck yeah. The Legend of Cocaine Island, Netflix 2019
Culera, Puerto Rico, 15 years ago … or maybe 20 … He weighed it: it was over seventy pounds … He buried it … And that’s where it stayed … ibid.
It was a totally failed mission. ibid.
World in Action reveals the true story behind Britain’s biggest ever cocaine connection. The crime was planned by this man, one of the world’s most wanted criminals; his partner was this man, a top London gangsta who played a double game. It’s the story of how over a hundred millions pounds’ worth of cocaine was unloaded on the streets of Britain. And it’s also the story of the criminals’ secret links to the Metropolitan police. World in Action: Scotland Yard’s Cocaine Connection, Thames 1989
Cocaine: long regarded as the drug of choice for the super-wealthy. But today’s it’s stronger, cheaper and more dangerous than ever before. In the UK one million Brits take this Class A substance every year. Doing Drugs for Fun s1e1, Channel 5 2019
Does doing drugs for fun really mean no harm done? ibid.
Britain now spends more on cocaine than on tea. ibid.
Samples of cocaine from London and Manchester are being analysed at a licensed laboratory. ibid.
English lad: How much does a gram of cocaine cost?
Columbian dude … about £7. ibid. three English lads
The coca leaves contain traces of a chemical alkaloid – the bases of the drug. Doing Drugs for Fun s1e2
The next additive is gasoline … ‘and some of this battery acid. ibid. cocaine production
In Colombia, Britain’s number one supplier of cocaine, they discovered more was being produced now that at any other time in its history. Doing Drugs for Fun s1e3
Within two weeks of entering circulation, every single banknote in Britain will be contaminated with the drug. ibid.
Britain is experiencing a cocaine epidemic. ibid.
‘Every single line of cocaine comes with significant levels of harm and exploitation.’ ibid. rozzer
For years I’ve been reporting on the UK’s veracious appetite for illegal drugs. I’ve seen the market flooded for cocaine that’s cheaper than ever. So I’ve come to Colombia where 70% of the world’s cocaine is produced to find out why. Our World: Colombia: The New Cocaine War, BBC 2020
Some areas of Colombia are facing a perfect storm. They fear the government has failed the peace process, allowing new murderous gangs to exploit the vacuum. ibid.
Even as I’m shovelling up my hooter, I realize the sad truth. Coke bores me. It bores us all. We’re jaded cunts, in a scene we hate, a city we hate, pretending that we’re at the center of the universe, trashing ourselves with crap drugs to stave off the feeling that real life is happening somewhere else, aware that all we’re doing is feeding that paranoia and disenchantment, yet somehow we’re too apathetic to stop. ’Cause, sadly, there’s nothing else of interest to stop for. Irvine Welsh, Porno
If you did cocaine in America in the ’80s, it almost certainly passed through Miami. Millions of dollars’ worth were smuggled in … Rival gangs battled for their share of the drugs profits making Miami the murder capital of America. Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller s1e2: Cocaine, National Geographic 2020
We enter a lawless region that produces roughly one-fifth of the world’s cocaine: Vraem, Peru: Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers. ibid.
These labs are the economic engines for the local communities, Without them, there would be little demand for coca leaves. ibid.
I’ve heard tales of a new breed of narco-trafficker – women. Rumour has it these brash cocaine-queens are helping revolutionise the multi-billion-dollar drug business. Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller s2e7: Cocaine Queens
Cops still assume that cocaine traffickers look like Pablo Escobar, not like Hello Kitty. ibid.
These shoot-outs with law enforcement have become all too often. ibid.
Cocaine has transformed Brazil’s black market and its players. ibid.
For five decades Colombia has been the world’ biggest cocaine producer. ibid.
Much of the blame for all that can be laid on the burly shoulders of 34 year old Curtis Warren. Arrested after a raid on a warehouse; investigators discovered cocaine with a street value of £75 million. Once known as Interpol’s Target One, Warren led a gang who for years had flooded Europe with heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and hashish. Liverpool Narcos III: Cocaine
Curtis Warren was released from Dutch jail in 2007. He was convicted in 2009 on further drug smuggling charges in Jersey. He remains in prison. ibid.
During the 1970s cities across the US and Canada were awash with cocaine smuggled in through the port of Montreal by the Irish/Canadian criminal organisation the West End Gang. The Irish Mob s1e4, 2016
The story of Brian O’Dea begins in St John’s, the largest city on the island of Newfoundland in east Canada … In the early 1970s cocaine traffickers in South America were starting to put together the pieces of what would soon be a multi-billion-dollar empire, and Brian O’Dea was part of it from the very start. He started making regular trips to Bogota. The Irish Mob s1e5
Throughout the 1970s Brian O’Dea continued to bring regular shipments of cocaine into the US from both South America and Jamaica. ibid.
Cocaine is going through the biggest boom in Australia's history. We use more of it per capita than any other country. And we're willing to pay for it. Four Corners: Cocaine Cartels, ABC 2023
It's an elicit economy regulated by violence. ibid.
‘The Crazy One’ was one of the fiercest and most feared narco-traffickers in the world.’ Drug Lords: The Takedown s1e2: The Animal, National Geographic 2023
‘If you think I’m bad, there’s another guy out there from the north. That guy is really dangerous. He’s an absolute animal … Otoniel.’ ibid.
Cocaine: ‘Like an injection of steroids into the Colombia Civil War.’ ibid.
For Giovanni Usuga and his younger brother Otoniel, the civil war is a career opportunity. They join a right-wing paramilitary outfit which merges with the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC. ibid. caption
‘They were fighting for ownership of the drug trade.’ ibid.
In March 2010 the USA targets the Gulf Clan and designates Giovanni as a ‘kingpin’. ibid.
‘Dozens of police die at the hands of Otoniel.’ ibid.
By the time of his death, Giovanni was shipping about 2,000 kilograms of cocaine a month to the USA. Just 2 months later, in February 2012, Otoniel ships 7,000 kilograms with a street value of over $200 million. ibid.
Otoniel’s position is finally pinpointed in the mountains of northwestern Colombia. ibid.