From Medellin’s elite clubbers to the cartel queens that run the underworld, all of a sudden everyone in Colombia seems to be snorting pink “cocaine,” also known as “tucibi.” It’s fashionable, it’s six times as expensive as regular “white” cocaine, it has its own genre of music called “Guaracha,” and it’s so popular that it has even spawned a whole new generation of “neo-narcos.” Cartels are expanding production into Europe, so expect to see this “magic pink powder”- if you haven’t already.
Tag Archives: trafficking
Cartels in West Africa
Over the past decade or so, South American cartels have found a new way to get their product into the vast European marketplace – West Africa.
The region’s porous borders, endemic poverty and weak law enforcement make it an easy target for international organised crime. But now drug use is spilling over into local markets, and the corruption inherent in the War on Drugs has begun to warp entire societies, leading to the emergence of Africa’s first real narco-states.
We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe. Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.
Terror and Cocaine in the Peruvian Jungle
The cocaine industry in Peru is outgrowing its traditional region of production—the VRAEM—and expanding into other areas of the country like the Amazon lowlands and the Brazilian border. This is creating a new wave of violence for indigenous tribes who are refusing to work with the cartel.
We embed with local drug traffickers to see the cocaine refinement process firsthand, visit with an autodefensa militia group, and meet a local Amazonian community currently under attack.
Sahara (series)
Series Synopsis
For centuries colonialists have bypassed the Sahara. The largest sand desert on the planet was too hot and too impenetrable.
Now, Europe seems to have shifted its southern border to the Sahara in order to stop migration and combat terrorism. How do the inhabitants of the Sahara feel about this interference?
In Sahara, a new three episode series, Bram Vermeulen crosses the desert from west to east, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
He experiences the heat, the dangers of advancing jihadism, the desperation of migrants, the hidden world of slavery, uncovers human trafficking networks and he meets with locals in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.
Episode 1 – The Secret of Mauritania
In the far west of the Sahara lies Mauritania. Ten years ago, this country was a busy crossing for migrants from West Africa to the Canary Islands, but since the Spanish coast guard have taken up patrols, no one has gotten through.
Mauritania is one of those countries that has managed to escape the attention of the world press. A country of sand where the first cities were not built until the 1960s, but urbanisation has brought many desert customs to the city. Notorious is the habit of force-feeding young girls with camel milk and breadcrumbs dipped in olive oil, a banned custom intended to make them more attractive on the marriage market.
It turns out that there is much more happening in Mauritania that they would rather hide.
Officially, slavery was abolished in Mauritania in 1981, nearly a century after the rest of the world had banned it, but activists are still fighting every day to free tens of thousands of black Mauritanians who are owned by others. They have no rights. They do not get paid. Women who have children, often by their owners, have to give their children their owners’ last names, and the children are not entitled to an education. And the battle against slavery is hazardous for activists, lawyers and the journalists who report on it.
Episode 2 – Timbuktu at the Crossroads
Timbuktu was a dream destination for any traveller brave enough to cross the Sahara. Centuries ago, mythical stories were told about Timbuktu; the streets were said to be paved in gold.
In 2012 the city was taken by an alliance of Tuareg separatists and Ansar Dine Jihadists. They realised the dream of generations of Tuareg nomads: their own state, under the name of Azawad. Ancient tombs were destroyed and for nine months, Timbuktu lived under the strict sharia regime until the French army was brought in to free the city.
We meet the owner of the only bar in Timbuktu, the son of a mixed marriage between a Malian mother and a French soldier. It was this ancestry that saved his life on the day that the Jihadists took over the city. Everyone in Timbuktu has two identities. The local journalist who had to run propaganda for the occupiers to stay alive. The young women who were abused by the Jihadists, but then came back to celebrate and dance to a song that praises the ideals of their abusers.
Timbuktu it seems remains a dangerous city in the grips of an identity crisis.
Episode 3 – Niger: Stuck in the Middle
For centuries, the frontier desert-city of Agadez was the starting point for travellers crossing the Sahara; the hub between West Africa and the Mediterranean, but the European migration panic has had a huge impact on Agadez. Under pressure from Brussels and in receipt of substantial payments, the government of Niger has adopted a law prohibiting the transport of migrants.
The law has left over 6000 smugglers unemployed. Their cars have been confiscated, many have been arrested, and most of the migrants in Agadez have been sent back to neighbouring countries of Algeria and Libya.
Today, Agadez is an angry city. The EU had promised alternative employment, but of the 6000 candidates, only 200 jobs materialised. The former smugglers blame their own bureaucrats who charged fees to assist them in filling in forms, but then sat back and did nothing.
Some of the smugglers have moved to the goldmines in the Sahara, indescribably difficult work in the 45 degree heat, and a far cry from their lucrative former employment.
There is a volatile atmosphere in the streets of Agadez. Monday always used to be the day of departure for the smugglers. Can it be that the smugglers of Agadez have found a new way to circumvent the wishes to Europe and the blockades?
Bad Hombres
Bad Hombres explores the most heavily used migration route on Earth. Journalist Stef Biemans traveled between Guatemala and the US to see what the so-called ‘bad hombres’ hope to find in the USA.
Who are the people who inspired the building of a wall on the Mexican border?
“Biemans stays calm at all times and defers to his subjects. The result is rich and integral television, sometimes moving and always captivating”
De Volkskrant
Also available as a five part series:
Episode One:
Episode Two:
Episode Three:
Episode Four:
Episode Five:
The 12-Year-Olds Drug Dealers
For the past decade, the UK has been horrified by the phenomenon of County Lines – big city criminal groups using kids as young as 12 to take over the drug supply of smaller towns and villages.
It’s taken years for the police to even begin to understand that many of these children are groomed and exploited, rather than just arresting them as dealers. We show how county lines are a direct product of the War on Drugs itself.
We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe. Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.
Opioid Crisis of the Himalayas
There have been claims of Pakistan pushing drugs into India’s border state of Punjab, as an act of alleged Narco-terrorism for decades. Once Punjab doubled down on drug trafficking in the state, its neighbour Himachal seemed to have become collateral damage.
India’s northernmost state Himachal Pradesh is in the grips of a heroin crisis, with double the number of illegal opioid users per capita as compared to the rest of India. Esha Paul meets drug peddlers, recovering addicts, and the police on Himachal’s borders to see how a rural state known for being a tourist paradise spiralled into an opioid epidemic.
Southern Exposure
Three years in the making, Southern Exposure is the first documentary that lifts the curtain of lies, half-truths and misinformation to reveal the many facets of illegal immigration to the USA.
The result is a hard-hitting investigation that chronicles the back-stories of drug cartels & human trafficking, the consequences of demographic changes, the resurgance of contagious diseases and the rise of racism and it’s corollary; Ethnic Studies programs taught in schools that promote the myth of Aztlan – that the Southern States are part of the Mexican homeland.
Long seen as a taboo subject, Southern Exposure is unflinching in identifying the consequences of illegal immigration, sensitive to those who risk everything to make the crossing and comprehensive in it’s analysis of the effects – both direct and indirect.