narcotics

Mission Accomplished

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z3OgXPj8Nc&rel=0] Burned 2 labs now loading back on Blackhawk. Wash from blades so strong nearly knocked us over.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of6J1VHX9o4&rel=0]

Mission accomplished. Everyone safe. This operation occured near the border of Ecuador and Colombia.

Burning the Cocaine Labs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIf7OVg8QIs&rel=0] The chemicals of acids and kerosene make the fire explode.  Everything must be destroyed.  The blaze was very intense and put off a repulsive smell.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqV-aNwi_oE&rel=0]

Blaze gets going!  You can see how fast the fire explodes.  However, as we moved to seize another lab the fire was unrecognizable when we traveled 100 feet farther into the jungle.

After the mission we drove 4-hours back to Pucallpa in the night.

This is an image of our interpreter Joseph shows how dusty the ride home was.  We returned to our base at 1:30 AM.

Cocaine Lab Seizure!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3ZqDI9ahSM&rel=0] Will at lab sight 2 minutes after seizure.  You can see we are all out of breath and trying to take in everything that just happened.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwXNHKk-540&rel=0]

Immediately after the cocaine-workers were captured the Dinandro soldiers set themselves to breaking down the crude lab.  The mounds of what looks like dead leaves are exactly that.  Those are coca leaves awaiting processing from this lab.

Brute Cocaine Process

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_VYP6En678&rel=0] Here, we are shown by the Dinandro team what the end product of the labs is.  The white balls which look like dough is brute cocaine paste.  This is one phase away from being cocaine chloride, which is the white powdery substance mostly trafficked world wide.  Drug cartels then will pick up the brute paste from these lab chemists and create the final product on their own.

Jungle Narcotics Mission

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C41HXOJrKSc&rel=0] March into jungle.  This video was 15 minutes into our hike towards the cocaine labs.  notice the clearing we come across.  This is one of the many illegal coca fields we saw en route to the jungle lab.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfRJub1oYr0&rel=0]

This next video is ten minutes before the first seizure.  Many times we would halt for a moment in the jungle to maintain silence and the element of surprise.

Chemicals Bound for Labs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv00-I940Pc&rel=0]

This boat was caught two days south of Pucallpa. It contained  large amounts of chemicals used to create brute cocaine paste.  This seizure was immediately following the new intelligence gained from the informants being held in Lima.  The boat will now be used to police the waterways by the Dinandro (anti-narcotics division of Peru).