Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine

We are in the golden age of cocaine. Consumption and production have never been higher. Despite more than 40-years of ‘War on Drugs’ – the coca leaf still flourishes on the hills of Colombia.

For many Europeans and Americans, cocaine is a party drug. For many Colombians, cocaine is blood and violence, corruption and death.

This reportage delves into the murky depths of the cocaine trade and exposes some of the human consequences in Colombia of the world’s favorite party drug.

Illegal drugs now constitute the world's largest illegal economy, and in its wake follow corruption, underdevelopment, and extremely high murder rates in South and Central America in particular. Entire societies and nations are destabilized. Regardless of years of war and endless efforts to stop cocaine Colombia remains in the heart of the business. No place produces more. No place suffers more. But never have the production been higher.

The international response has so far been a mixture of prohibition, hard punishment and bloody military campaigns that are raging across Colombia’s countryside. This has been the strategy since the 1970s - but is it working? And from whose perspective? And what is the human consequences behind the world’s insatiable appetite for cocaine?

What I plan to do with the Grant.

I will happily share my detailed travel and work plans with you, but very shortly explained, the grant will be used to visit, and re-visit different people and communities involved in the drug trade – such as the coca-farmers in Cauca who suffers from violence from the armed groups, the neglected slum areas in Buenaventura where the rivalling street gangs feeds on the profitable smuggling routes. And I will go to Catatumbo, the epicentre for drug production and trafficking, where I will join the military on their endless raids on laboratories and armed cartels.

The time to make this story is now.

I’m married to a Colombian and worked in the country since 2006. And after years of groundwork the window is finally opening to create this unique story. I have the contacts and access that I need - and politically the new Petro-government in Colombia, as well as leaders across Latin America, are now openly admitting the failures of the past and the new solution that the future must bring. This story will be an important piece to understand what is really happening on the ground.

I strongly believe the World need to see it now. To feel it. The consequences of failed drug policies. The bloody war on drugs. The real price for our own youths rising appetite for cocaine.

And I hope we can do it Together.

Mads Nissen

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Ariel Albeiro Muñoz, 19, and his friends collecting coca leaves. The payment for this work is twice as high as if they were picking coffee on nearby farms. Ariel Albeiro Muñoz doesn’t take, or care much about, cocaine or politics; he just wants to raise enough money to buy a motorbike to impress the girls, he says. Others, however, do care about the coca. The area around the village of Pueblo Nuevo is known as a Red Zone. It’s heavily affected by coca production and consequently also a continues history of violence, landmines, fumigations, and direct combat between especially the armed guerrilla group that controls the area and national army.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of 100% pure, uncut cocaine on offer for just 1250 USD by a local cocaine producer. With the street value of 127 USD for a single gram in London, it is obvious that it’s not the local Colombian farmers who are getting rich from the business.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Charmuco, 23, and Reto, 16, showing of their guns in the poor and neglected neighbourhood of Potrero Grande in Cali. The gang members are making their living from robberies, thefts, drug trafficking and occasionally, assassinations. The Colombian street gangs and drug cartels are closely linked and feed each other. The street gangs buy drugs to sell on the local market from the cartels, who might also offer protection, while the cartels might come and ask for foot soldiers and other favours and illegal services from the gangs.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Drug country. Cannabis and coca leaves for cocaine-production are grown openly and extensively in these mountains only a few hours from the city of Cali. To help stimulate the cannabis production artificial lighting is used during the night for the first two months of cultivation. In the background on this image light bulbs can be seen across the landscape, revealing the vast extent of cannabis production in the area. To maintain stability and to prevent armed groups – including the Colombian national army – from entering the area and disturbing their business, locals have formed their own unarmed vigilante group to monitor all movement inside the territory. Poverty is widespread in this area, even among farmers who cultivate and produce the illegal crops, and since many - if not most – families rely on this income, they feel they have little choice but to keep growing the illicit crops and to protect them from the frequent official eradication programmes which would wipe out their livelihood.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Andres Hernandez, 26, producing cocaine in his laboratory in the mountains of Antioquia. The coca-leaf collectors start at 5am in the morning, and during a working day a person collects two sacks of approximately 70 kilos each. Soon after the leaves are taking to a simple laboratory like this one, where the first phase of the cocaine production takes place. According to the people working in this laboratory it will take 600 kilos of coca-leaves to produce 1 kilo of cocaine-base. The cocaine-base is being sold to a middleman or directly to a drug-cartel who runs another and more sophisticated laboratory, where the cocaine powder, or crystal, is being made.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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The special anti-narcotic police force ‘Comando Jungla’ are attacking and destroying a cocaine laboratory in Playa Rica, Chocó. The area is largely controlled by the ELN guerrilla, who protect and benefit economically from the coca growing and the production of cocaine. Lately the Clan De Golfo cartel are moving to fight for the control. In this area, during a couple of hours, the Comando Jungle destroyed five laboratories of coca paste and then this one producing cocaine ready for exporting (cocaine hydrochloride). The operation acquired 54 soldiers around the sites, including 4 helicopters. But as the soldiers say: “Already tomorrow they can start producing coca paste again.”

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Martín Osorio, 38, with his family at the final stage of the production. The bowl in front of him will soon turn into about a kilo solid cocaine base. Like thousands of small scale farmers across Colombia Martín Osorio is running his own little laboratory where he processes the coca leafs from his own 25 hectares and what he might buy from the neighbours. A varity of illegally armed groups operates in the region, but on these hills it’s dissidents from the former FARC-guerilla who controls the market. Recently the paramilitary group called Los Mesas are pushing to get in. The name of his daughter is Diney Alexandra and his son’s name is Michael.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Diney Alexandra takes a nab on the floor of her father’s cocaine laboratory, while he is processing the leafs into cocaine-base. The entire process from the leaf to cocaine base is usually made in two days. The cocaine base is then sold to a middleman or directly to the cartels who will make the final product in a second phase laboratory.

© Mads Nissen - 2,5 kilos of newly made cocaine base on the kitchen table of a family involved in the production.
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2,5 kilos of newly made cocaine base on the kitchen table of a family involved in the production.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Black smoke from a cocaine laboratory that is being blown up by the special anti-narcotic police force ‘Comando Jungla’. The ‘Comando Jungla’ are attacking and destroying cocaine laboratories across the country, this time on a remote mountainside in Playa Rica, Chocó. This laboratory is estimated to produce about 500 kilos a week. In this area, during a couple of hours, the ‘Comando Jungle’ destroyed five laboratories of coca paste and then this one producing cocaine ready for exporting (cocaine hydrochloride). The operation acquired 54 soldiers around the sites, including 4 helicopters. But as the soldiers say: “Already tomorrow they can start producing coca paste again.” The area is largely controlled by the ELN guerrilla, who protect and benefit economically from the coca growing and the production of cocaine. Lately the Clan De Golfo cartel are moving to fight for the control.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Jesus Bautista, 25, a soldier for the Colombian army, was badly wounded when he stepped on a landmine on April 26th 2021 in the region of Catatumbo, where he was fighting an armed group involved in the drug business. He lost all sight on his left eye and the left leg had to be amputated from the knee and down. The region of Catatumbo is known for its lucrative coca plantations and production with a different ‘capo’ or armed group operation on almost every hillside. Colombia is one of the most landmine contaminated countries in the world and have some of the highest amounts of landmine victims per year. The landmines are closely connected to the cocaine production, as they are widely used by armed groups to protect the destruction of crops and laboratories.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Casualty of the war on drugs. A boot and a nametag mark the spot where Wilson de Jesús Martínez Jaraba, 37, a soldier from the Colombian army, was killed by a land mine on July 15. 2015. The landmines are closely connected to the cocaine production. This area near El Orejon, Antioquia is known for its lucrative coca plantations and production, and the land mines are mostly placed on the hillsides to protect the destruction of coca crops and laboratories. Colombia is one of the most landmine contaminated countries in the world and have some of the highest amounts of landmine victims per year.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Mule. X-ray images of Juan Pablo Mejía, 26, reveals 13 capsules of 20 gram of cocaine each that the young man is smuggling inside stomach. Juan Pablo Mejía destination was Madrid in Spain, but at the Eldorado International Airport in Bogotá he was profiled by the anti-narcotic police and taken to the body-scanner where unusual spots on the picture can reveal the so-called ‘mules’ – cocaine smugglers. Juan Pablo works at pharmaceutical company, but he is the only provider for him and his 70-year-old mother, and during covid-19 lock down he didn’t receive any payment and had to borrow money. He paid back most, but when he failed to deliver about 1000 USD fast enough, he received a clear warning that something “very bad” would happen to him any time. But the loan sharks also offered him another way out: bring these bags of cocaine to our client in Madrid and your dept is paid. And so, Juan Pablo decided to go.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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A recent catch of 602 kilos of cocaine caught inside a container aiming for Spain are being stored while waiting to be burned. Most of Colombia’s cocaine is shipped out either in so-called Go Fast Boats, narco-submarines or hidden inside cargo, which are then shipped out in containers to the rest of the world. The port city of Buenaventura is the biggest in the country and here anti-narcotic police are trying to find the needles in the haystack, and searching containers using a mix of data, profiling, x-ray, ultrasound, dogs, and their own intuition to catch the cocaine. Each kilo of cocaine is marked with logo, this time of the Heineken beer. These marks of Apple, Nike, Heineken etc. is the common way by the cartels to show the producer who guarantee the quality of the product.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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A child last goodbye to her father. Sharid Popayan, 1 year, with her mother Nasly Martinez, 19, at the funeral of her father. Alvaro was a funny and carrying father. The sweetheart of his mother, her “favourite son”, she explains. He called her “Mita” for Mamita (little mom) and she replied in a soft voice “mi negro”. But on November 4th. 2016 Alvaro Steven, age 20, was targeted and killed at close range by four gunshots. The murder is assumed to be an act of "ajuste de cuentas" - a violent street justice - in this case assumingly revenge for a wrongdoing he did in the past related to drug trade.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Soacha, South of Bogotá. One of the areas that suffers most from poverty, drugs and gang war. In the past almost all of Colombia’s cocaine was exported, but because of the huge flow and easy and cheap access to cocaine, the local market has been rising in recent years. The high crime rates of Colombia are also closely linked to the the drug-issue. Drug violence obviously happens when cartels or gang members are killed for the fight of the market or supply and smuggling routes, but it also increases the violence in the rest of the society, when the armed gang members go to the streets to rob and steal to finance their own consumption.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Didiller Angulo, 9, on the basketball court. People only moved to Potrero Grande about 10 years ago, but the neighbourhood is already considered one of the most troubled in the country. Extreme poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunities have propelled the area into a downward spiral of widespread drugs abuse, deadly violence and deeply rooted social problems.

© Mads Nissen - Two young boys on drugs -completely out of reach- are being arrested by the police after some street fighting.
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Two young boys on drugs -completely out of reach- are being arrested by the police after some street fighting.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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War on Drugs. Soldiers returning to base after a mission, where a plantation of coca-crops where destroyed in the Catatumbo region.

© Mads Nissen - Image from the Sangre Blanca - The Lost War on Cocaine photography project
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Blue smoke over a destroyed coca-field marks the landing spot for a military helicopter. No other place in Colombia, and therefore no place on the planet, produces as much cocaine as the provinces of Tumaco and Catatumbo in Norte de Santander. Catatumbo is a remote countryside with valleys and mountains covered in dense vegetation and with an unusual and unpredictable climate with tropical storms and a world record in lightings. The place is not only home to cocaine-production, but also to a variety of illegal armed groups and smuggling routes to the ports off the Caribbean coast and in the neighbouring country Venezuela. From those ports the cocaine is being shipped to Europe and the USA.

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