Maria is one of an army of 'raspachines' paid $2.50 for every 11 kilos of leaves collected which will be turned in to pure cocaine. Amid the dirt and poverty, this is the first-stage of the multi-billion dollar cocaine trade. Photo: Nicoló Filippo Rosso
Many coca pickers react badly to coca’s touch, they’re hands swell up with ugly-looking blotchy bumps. And coca cuts. After a week, every picker’s hands are callused, crisscrossed with nicks and gashes. Photo: Nicoló Filippo Rosso
Quiet farming villages become raucous coca towns, scenes of sex and murder. Cocaine causes huge waves of migration across Colombia, as salesmen and prostitutes travel miles, attracted by the unmistakable smell of coca farmers with cash. Prostitutes charter planes to travel to the more remote towns deep in the jungle, confident they’ll remake their money from the drunken coca-farmers. Photo: Nicoló Filippo Rosso
The U.S. Coast Guard burns a smugglers boat that had tons of cocaine aboard in the middle of the Eastern Pacific. Photo: Toby Muse