How Coca Leaves Become Cocaine | Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller

[music playing] [speaking spanish] I'm not going to lie, it's always a rush getting access to these clandestine worlds. The cocaine pit, the starting point for such a storied black market trade, ranks up there. But as the reporter high wears off, I realize that the whole process boils down to brute labor and simple chemistry.

[speaking spanish] So they've been doing this for three days, and now this is the final step, which they mix it with salt. It takes 400 kilos, almost 900 pounds, of coca leaves to make one kilo of cocaine. They're soaked in water, acid and bleach, which draws the drugs out of the leaves. And now it's ready to be moved on to smaller containers to the lab.

[speaking spanish] [music playing] Here in this makeshift lab, they'll start the purification process. [speaking spanish] Researchers discovered how to extract cocaine from coca leaves over 150 years ago, and Americans got their first taste of the drug in Coca-Cola back in the 19th century before it was banned by the federal government in 1914. It's a really, really intense smell.

[speaking spanish] To purify cocaine in the middle of the Peruvian jungle, they figured out how to extract the drug using simple household chemicals and a whole lot of gasoline. In this lab, each batch requires 70 gallons.

[speaking spanish] Ammonia, bleach, cement, lime, gasoline. With each toxic additive, the drug becomes more and more concentrated. So what they're doing is that they're removing the top of it, which is the fuel, and the bottom, there's a clear sort of liquid, and that's where the drug remains. Do you see it's pretty dark? And that's all the gasoline, and the clear part now underneath.

[speaking spanish] So yeah, that's the drugs right there. So they call that clear liquid, they call it the soup. [speaking spanish] [laughter] They asked me if I wanted to try it. [laughter] I said no.

[speaking spanish] Oh, check this out. This is amazing. It's crazy to think that only weeks from now, this jungle soup will disappear up some American's nostrils. Now it's time for the final step, a splash of ammonia to solidify the drugs.

[speaking spanish] OK, they have to speed it, we have to speed it up, OK? With so many livelihoods depending on this lab, Civichia's friend is taking a massive risk giving us a peek behind the curtain. So when the chemist disappears for a moment, I begin to worry.

[speaking spanish] OK, guys, we have to go right now. [speaking spanish] [tense music playing] Let's go, let's go. His crew was spotted by somebody up on the road. They say that we have to get into the car, get out of here. OK. We have to go fast. No, no, no.

[speaking spanish] Are they all inside? [car engine] [tense music playing] Thankfully we escape without incident, but the drugs' long journey north is only just beginning.