Updated: 25 Jan 2021, 14:52
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IN the dead of night, backpackers carrying rifles and grenades meet up in the Peruvian jungle: the beginning of a 3,000-mile journey that could cost them their lives.
Between them, the young men are carrying 30kg of cocaine paste – which will eventually be worth $750,000 (£550,000) by the time it reaches users nostrils.
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Mariana Van Zeller with members of the Gulf Clan - a super cartel which controls cocaine smuggling out of ColombiaCredit: National Geographic
The dark and dangerous hike is the very first step in a supply chain that will see their paste smuggled to all corners of the world, from Miami to Melbourne.
Addiction supports falling short | Cork Independent corkindependent.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from corkindependent.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and EUROPOL are warning authorities that the pandemic is having a massive impact on the drug scene in countries across the EU.
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned logistics and supply-chains around the world upside down. That also holds true for global smuggling routes. But how are drug dealers and drug addicts reacting to pandemic chaos? I went to Warsaw to investigate.
Warsaw s Praga district
The rundown Praga district in the Polish capital, Warsaw, is a hot spot for drug addicts. Discarded bottles, empty pill packets and used syringes can be found all around abandoned buildings.
Закладки и метадон: как пандемия сказалась на мире наркотиков? euronews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from euronews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.