Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jun 2006
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Section: Travel & Vacations
Copyright: 2006 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Steven Dudley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

VISITING COLOMBIA'S COCAINE FACTORY ZONE

The area where the Lost City was built centuries ago now is home to 
one of the most lucrative and destructive businesses in the world: 
cocaine trafficking. And for a $10 fee, those who come to see the 
Lost City can take a detour to see the first stage of the dirty 
process involving gasoline and sulfuric acid, among other appetizing 
ingredients, that makes a simple, hard-edged leaf into a deadly and 
addictive powder.

On my recent trip, three travelers accompanied by myself and a 
photographer, paid close attention to all the details, then asked 
questions of Adan Bedoya, a 62-year-old campesino from the Santa 
Marta mountain range, who showed us through the process step by step. 
The tourists then toyed with the ingredients and took some photos in 
the so-called "factory" for their parents. One of them asked Bedoya 
for some cocaine and was disappointed to find that Bedoya rarely has 
contact with "the actual stuff."

The irony is that Bedoya says he makes about $500 a month doing these 
short tours, more than he does selling his finished product from this 
lab, which is a gooey paste that he sells to middlemen who take it to 
a different, more sophisticated laboratory to make it into the powder 
that you might have seen at a party or two in Miami.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman