‘Don’t turn you back, man.’ ibid. dealer
This industry is worth £8 billion in the UK each year. Illegal drugs are used by over 5 million people. There are at least 20,000 dealers in London alone. Drugland I: Cocaine, Cannabis & Ecstasy, captions, BBC 2005
This is the story of a hidden industry. It is set in Britain’s capital where one in five young people regularly use recreation drugs. ibid.
The increasing use of cocaine has brought new clients to the Ticketman from all over London. ibid.
‘Cocaine just seems to be part of the landscape now.’ ibid.
Recreational drugs … represent about 95% of illegal drug use in Britain. ibid.
The Home Office estimates one million people used cocaine last year. ibid.
‘When I pick up that first drug I can’t stop.’ ibid. cocaine user
Few of the dealers I met admitted to tampering with the product. ibid.
The consumption of cocaine has risen four-fold in the last decade. ibid.
It was in 1988 that Webb came to join the San Jose Mercury News as a staff writer. The Corbett Report: Requiem for the Suicided: Garry Webb, James Corbett online
Gary’s investigation linked the CIA’s cocaine operation to the crack epidemic that was rampant in Los Angeles ghettos. ibid.
‘The cocaine that was being sold in those neighbourhoods was coming from mainly one source, and this one source was being used to finance a guerrilla war in Central America.’ ibid. Webb
Was Gary Webb Suicided To Kill New Book? … ‘I spoke to Gary and in the conversation he indicated he had a lot of evidence that did not appear in his writings. I cautioned him that the CIA might contrive to ‘suicide’ him, and he indicated that if he died it would not be suicide’. ibid. Rense online article Charlene Fassa April 2012
Original Associated Press reports stated that Webb had died of gunshot wounds (plural) to the face. ibid. news report
The many deaths of prominent political figures linked to Bill Clinton’s scandals in the 90s and how their obvious murders were always ruled as ‘accident’ or ‘suicide’ became known as ‘Arkancide’ because Clinton’s favourite Coroner Fahmy Malak helped him cover up every case’. ibid. Prison Planet online report
The story of how cocaine took America by storm starts here in a Connecticut federal prison where this man is locked up for car theft: Carlos Lehder … Lehder’s cellmate is an American with a passion for aviation, George Jung, a hippy misfit who specialised in smuggling marijuana from Mexico to the US on small planes. America’s War on Drugs II: Cocaine, Cartels & Crackdowns, History 2017
Medellin: the home of the man of whom Carlos Lehder and George Jung would revolutionise the cocaine trade: Pablo Escobar Gaviria. ibid.
Lehder is bringing in [Bahamas] $20 million a month. ibid.
Carlos Lehder is now head of logistics for Pablo Escobar. ibid.
‘Pablo Escobar was just a customer of Roberto Suarez.’ ibid. undercover agent
Barbie began working for Roberto Suarez. ibid.
Miami starts to look like an occupied zone. ibid.
Barry Seal: a legend in the world of drug-smuggling … ‘He would smuggle weapons for the CIA; he would fly drugs for cartels.’ ibid.
A small airport in city of Mena, Arkansas. ibid.
CIA contract pilots illegally arming the Contras …also smuggling cocaine to help the cause. ibid.
Under these new sentencing guidelines five grams of crack cocaine, often sold by and to African Americans, carried a mandatory five-year sentence; for powdered cocaine, often sold by and to white Americans, it would take one hundred times that amount for the same sentence. ibid
1989: US cocaine market from Mexico: 30%; 1999: US cocaine market from Mexico 85%. America’s War on Drugs III: Gangs, Prisons & Meth Queens, History 2017
He [Rik Luytjes] was the greatest smuggler in American history. His customised super-plane evaded sophisticated radar and outran government air patrols. And landed tons of drugs in the last place authorities expected. Masterminds e28: Air America, 2004
Landing billions of dollars of cocaine. ibid.
Air America … His Florida pot-smuggling days come back to haunt him … The only defendant the jury acquits. ibid.
‘This guy parked his car underneath my aeroplane. ibid.
The DEA makes its move on Air America and Rik Luytjes. ibid.
It’s one of the most addictive drugs in the world. Whatever you call it nearly 37 million Americans have used it at least once. Drugged s1e2: High on Cocaine, National Geographic 2011
Its popularity has soared as its price has dropped. ibid.
The drug sends the network into overdrive. Cocaine triggers the massive release of Dopamine across the gaps. ibid.
More: that’s the coke-user’s problem. ibid.
A cocaine addict’s brain becomes de-sensitised. ibid.
It’s a sort of special kind of sherbert, Piers. The New Statesman s2e5: California Here I Come, B’stard, ITV 1989
There are over 11 million Western consumers of cocaine. It is estimated that nearly 90% of these are casual users. Cocaine Unwrapped, Together 2018
In London a gram of cocaine sells for around £50. A coca farmer in Colombia will get less than 50 pence of this. ibid.
The majority of the world’s cocaine is produced from coca leaf grown in Colombia. ibid.
The eradication of crops contributes to Colombia’s internal displacement of over 5 million people. ibid.
‘The soldiers would come and shoot us and we suffered a lot of casualties.’ ibid. Colombia farmer
Over 37,000 people have been killed in Mexico since President Calderon declared a war on drug trafficking in 2006. ibid.
The annual cost of fighting the War on Drugs is estimated at $100 billion. ibid.
Great Britain is in the grip of an epidemic. We are one of the world’s biggest users of cocaine. With young British adults consuming more than double the European average. These days there’s not a corner of the country where you can’t get hold of the Class A drug. Britain’s Cocaine Epidemic s1e1, Channel 5 2018
Normal people make up the vast network who drive the cocaine economy up and down the country. ibid.
The street dealers are the workhorses of the drug distribution network. ibid.
‘I can’t say no to this sort of money that cocaine brings into my life basically.’ Britain’s Cocaine Epidemic s1e2: Teen Dealers, dealer, Channel 5 2018
Cocaine for them is an alternative to a Saturday job. ibid.
Colombia: a land of untold beauty and diverse cultures … the number one producer and exporter of cocaine. Despite 30 years of US-led war on drugs and the fall of the flamboyant drug lord Pablo Escobar, the traffic seems healthier than ever. Plan Colombia: Cashing in on the Drug War Failure, 2002
‘What is provided is very little.’ ibid. farmer
‘What right do the United States have to do anything?’ ibid. Noam Chomsky
The US government has made aerial spraying by US contractors the focus of its anti-drug policy in Colombia. ibid.
‘This [spraying cocktail] is going to blow around … There seem to be more skin problems in people who have been exposed to the spray.’ ibid. expert
Monsanto Round Up Ultra … these deadly chemicals are running into the war supply of the entire Amazon basin. ibid.
The production of cocaine has actually doubled over the last ten years. ibid.
Colombia evolves into an industrial society. ibid.
Despite millions of dollars spent and the training of over 10,000 Colombian officers in counter-guerrilla tactics, the Colombian military never manages to prevail. ibid.
Narco-traffickers become players in the conflict. ibid.
The School of the Americas has been training over 60,000 officers from all over Latin America with one clear mission … ‘a huge plague of oppression across the continent [Chomsky].’ ibid.
Medellin, Colombia 1982: Pablo Escobar is the head of the most powerful, violent and feared organisation in the world. The Medellin Cartel is raking in over $2 billion a month. Those Escobar can’t bribe he kills. Drug Lords s1e5: Pablo Escobar, National Geographic 2018
They referred to the Bahamas as their trampoline into the US. ibid.