05-07-2025
On the front line of Colombia's cocaine war
In northern Colombia, two guerrilla groups are at war. They're fighting for control of one of the world's top coca-producing regions — and the billion-dollar cocaine industry that comes with it.
Across the world, people are taking more cocaine than ever. Users from the UK to Europe and the US are estimated to consume up to six tonnes of the drug every day.
Since January, more than 65,000 people in Colombia have been forced to flee their homes in the worst violence in the country for a decade.
The Colombian army is trying to push the guerilla groups back. But they're stretched incredibly thin.
We spent weeks travelling through the mountainous region in the country's north talking to coca farmers, displaced civilians, the army and the guerrilla groups themselves to try to understand how the cocaine industry works — and why it's brought Colombia back to war.
