Even with cocaine exports declining in Colombia, the drug still rakes in $8 billion annually for traffickers and exports account for about 2.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product. For this reason, the production and sale of cocaine continue.
Over the years, the U.S. has supplied Colombian military with billions of dollars to combat traffickers, and that money has been well spent. According to Vocativ, authorities in Colombia destroyed 2,356 cocaine labs in 2012. While this was detrimental to the cocaine industry, it certainly didn't stop it—it just forced traffickers to get more creative.
Vocativ journalist Toby Muse was granted access to a secret cocaine lab in Colombia on the condition that the city in which it's located wasn't named. The lab is part of a growing trend where the huge plants are being phased out in favor of "small, mobile and disposable urban labs." It's kind of like when Walt and Jesse went from cooking meth in the superlab to people's homes during the fifth season. Learn how 100 percent pure cocaine powder can me made with only a few simple tools.
[via Vocativ]
