The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - Inside The REAL Narco State: The Colombian Drug Cartels DOMINATING The Global Cocaine Trade

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Inside Colombia’s hidden war, where guerrilla armies, drug cartels, and corrupt officials fuel the world’s cocaine trade. This documentary takes you deep into the jungles, barrios, and killing fields that the media never shows. Former hitmen and cartel soldiers reveal how children are recruited, trained, and turned into killers — and how Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel now bankrolls Colombia’s drug empire. From mass kidnappings and paramilitary takeovers to the corruption that keeps the cocaine flowing, this is the untold story of how modern cartels dominate a billion-dollar global network. This Episode Is #Sponsored By The Following: Surfshark! Go to https://surfshark.com/connectmitchell or use code CONNECTMITCHELL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! CashApp! Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/1ekoiacn CODE: CASHAPP10 #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct deposit, overdraft coverage, and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. PrizePicks! Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CONNECT and use code CONNECT and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow 00:00 Introduction: The reality of kidnapping and crime 00:26 Overview of the conflict and drug war in Colombia 01:26 Street situation: violence and constant caution 02:00 Growth of the coca industry and the failure of eradication efforts 02:28 Human impact: deaths, violence, and loss 03:02 Who really runs things? The power of the guerrilla groups 03:48 Recent trends: record seizures and the booming business 04:09 Coca production and lack of economic opportunities 04:39 The heart of drug trafficking: Cali and the Valle region 05:25 Social dysfunction: bodies, murders, and the law of crime 06:08 The life of a hitman: testimonies and motivations 07:45 Recruitment, training, and the cycle of violence 10:19 This Episode Is Sponsored By Surfshark! 12:34 Criminal rise and the regional power structure 13:12 The evolution of guerrillas and their narco interests 15:13 The link between drug traffickers, guerrillas, and Mexican cartels 17:22 Forced recruitment and life in the camps 19:43 Tactics, military training, and professionalization 21:29 Violent competition: gangs, jobs, and loyalty 23:07 The kidnapping business: targets, logistics, and victims 25:43 This Episode Is Sponsored By CashApp & PrizePicks! 29:42 Recruitment of minors and threats to families 31:38 Territorial war: attacks and regional domination 32:47 Black Eagles: emerging group and extreme brutality 33:44 Pistol Plan: targeted killings and threats against officials 35:09 Impunity and corruption: the law doesn’t reach the hitmen 36:43 Logistic networks: transport, routes, and body concealment 39:06 Power of the gangs and the fight for territorial control 42:39 Social impact: displacement, armed power, and corruption 46:06 Economic dilemmas: poverty, crops, and dependency 46:48 Final reflection: the cycle of violence and the search for a way out Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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we took to sequestra a police, a lot, but we, that, we've got the casualties of the day, that we've got, we, we, it's, we, we, it, we, we, we, we, we we, and we're, we're, And he, he saw us to us and we saw the car, but we know we're saying we're going to do more

and he's going on in Colombia right now, and nobody in the media is talking about it. Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, is openly defying the United States and allying himself with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who's under serious threat of invasion by the US. It's possible that by the time this video comes out, we'll already be at war. The world has watched in recent weeks as Trump and Secretary of Defense Marco Rubio blow up alleged drug smuggling boats off of the coast of Venezuela,

trying to provoke a reaction for President Maduro as a pretext for invading his country. They claim an invasion and regime change in Venezuela is necessary to combat drug trafficking and topple the narco-terrorist state run by Kingpin Maduro. But that's bullshit. At most, 10% of the cocaine that reaches the U.S. is brought through the Caribbean, and maybe half of that 10% actually gets transited through Venezuela. The real narco state is Colombia. Right, it's a calient because, for at least, it's like, 20 days,

the his of a chief here. I can't say the name, but just after that, no, it's a calient, for all the other. Colombia is exporting to those hours, they're going to be so that's not to be. So, for that one has to be

cauteless. Colombia is exporting more cocaine than ever before in its history, orders of magnitude more than in the days of the famous drug lords. That, that, the plans that have made,

the government, the United, the injections that I've done for the eradication of coca, and the surprise is that that is that it's growing. So, it's saying that every day,

I traveled to the southern city of Kali and the infamous Kauka Valley to interview drug traffickers, hitmen, and former commanders for Colombia's infamous guerrilla armies. What I learned was shocking. There are things that are that really, da, that we're talking about in 20 years of participation, of a quantity of combat,

there were many of mortals. There were many of mortals. And before we get going, you know the deal. Please smash that like button, turn on notifications. Leave a comment if you liked the video and subscribe to the channel if you have not done so already. I love you for it. All right, without further ado, bamanos, cabronas. This area for here is a lot of baddard.

All is a war, all is crime, transcrimin, narcotrafficant, all. Puesto of command, because that's not, because that's

the guerrilla. Here, more than this all the armament, the armament, there just the arbores and the avid

give testimony, then you can't do you can do you do that's the way. It's that this is that this is that

the time is the In 2024, the Colombian government seized 650 metric tons of cocaine, a 35% increase from the previous year. In fact, since 2016, when the government made a peace pact with the FARC guerrilla rebels, every year since then has seen a new record for cocaine cultivation and production in Colombia. It's a mountain calmatida, it could say. But you're just to go to, marijuana, more than all, coca,

for here's more than coca. And in a place where you don't invest in a new version social, and no idea, me understand, and the only opportunity to to sembra coca, because you know to have to be of the amher. Columbia is now exporting so much blow

that the wholesale price of a kilo has dropped in every major country on earth. Even in distant, hard-to-reach markets like Eastern Europe and Australia. How is this possible? And if the kingpins of yesteryear like Pablo Escobar no longer exist, who's left running the show? The answer to that question lies in the city of Kali and the Vallé de Kauka,

the heartbeat of the Colombian drug trade. Kali, this is the other side of Colombia, where the news cameras don't come and the tourists don't visit. During the 80s and 90s, this city was headquarters to the all-powerful Kali cartel, the largest cocaine super cartel in world history. But since the cartel dissolved in the early 2000s, Kali has become one of the most violent, crime-ridden places in Colombia. This house is also used to, like a casa of Piquet,

is where they take bodies, chop them up, and get rid of them. So we'll be going in there quickly. We don't want to make too much of a scene. We'll go be going into the bathroom, so you can see where they actually chopped the people up. And then that's it. We'll just try to get out there as soon as possible before we get chopped up.

This guy is one of the guys. He doesn't know what I'm saying, but he's the one that chops the guys. But you see who his boss was? The Che Guevada. See that bucket? That's kept with water, but when they chop the people up in here,

that's basically how they do it. They get chopped up in here, they put in buckets like that, and they take them out. Your career of 12 years, or how many people have, sequestered in total. Most of that's got to

I'm not, for there's, no, for there's, no, some men't here, for there's, like, 20-algo, 28, I think I'm

for 30, for 30 patients. Killings are so rampant in Kali that the city actually passed a law banning two men from riding on a motorbike at the same time.

That's true. Remember, this used to be the most common way to kill someone in Colombia on a motorcycle. The guy in front drives while the guy on the back shoots. This is wild. But of course, despite this law, the killing continues. Becoming a cicario, a hitman, is a viable employment option for the thousands of young men trapped in the sprawling ghettos dotted throughout the hillsides of Kali. because it's the way more of the way of the

poverty, but it's just to over-sale a little. When I was more when I was at my men's transed with $600,000 for to get a for rob, $500,000.

That day, we'll wellim, better, and we did of all. And if we were we're inamorand, now we're, this is so,

this is so, Patoes. One of these cicarios is our new friend, Pedro. Pedro caught his first body when he was just 14 years old. When I recruited, I had more or less, I think I had like 14 years. The first thing that they're to robar, to rob, on the way, to,

to, for the nerves, if you know. But the first thing I did was to a pail or that's had torsied to them, and they had it had been on the other one and there was the first person that I made. When I was out of the campment, that's where we're going to go, the first thing was

was to give me a cellar, yeah in the barrio, you know one's a communicate with another person, that is a little more of a rango, if you know, the first they're doing is pass to an arm,

and, yeah, also, they pass to other company, with a manor, with a motor, then they're for different things. Because they're, they're going to to send a purer muchachos there,

invent, no, all they have a training, a progress, a level. And I, I, I, I just, I'm, like, like, like, like, me called, and I, and I went to the

place where we got to us, we said, this patient, and say, to say, me, were the characteristics. And not we investigated. And then, it was that after received another

the patient was in the billar. He was in a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a nervous, but as well, I also consumed drugs as a little, then I consumed drug, and I took like five services of one, glu, glu, glu. I remember that I was a, my companyer, that is much more than I. I said, PILAS, then I was to go to go to that motor,

that no, that not you'll start. We get to the village where I said, the palo was there, no suspect, no, he was not, because we were menores. Entree there, I was there, and, and I said, no, here, or I was, or I'm in this, is he, or is he or I? And, as, also, there was a emotion

for the end of this day that I, that I, to, I, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, There, I was And I remember I pegged two Trio, one of here back and another

here never never me gave the car, no, no, no, no, no, I,

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If it's not for you, they will refund you, but I promise you it is. Surfshark VPN. Thank you so much. To understand how young cicarios like Pedro fit into the larger framework of Colombian organized crime, we need to look at who the players are controlling the drug trade. The three largest drug cartels in Colombia today are the FARC, the ELN, and the Clan del Golfo. Just like Mexican cartels, these organizations are literally private armies, with numbers in the tens of thousands.

In fact, that's how they got started as armed insurgents, not as drug traffickers. The ELN and the FARC were left-wing communist-inspired guerrilla groups that formed in the 1960s with the goal of toppling the Colombian government. To fund their operations, the guerrillas engaged in extortion and kidnapping of rich Colombians and holding them for ransom. But then, with the cocaine boom of the 70s and 80s, the guerrillas began to collaborate with drug traffickers, taxing the coca-leafields and territories under their control, and guarding the cocaine laboratories that refine the coca paste into the law.

the finished product. What the past is that when I talk to you in the serba, Colombian, that's immense. Serbia Colombian that, that's

there's there's of much security of a laboratory go and you're going to two,

three, four, five years. As time went on, of course, these guerrillas eventually dropped

any pretense of political ideology and today are fully integrated drug cartels. No, no, no, no, no,

ideology. Right, that are, that are, narcos, narco to the ideology is the money.

It's not, it's like the people think that there's a lot, the guerrillas in the

mountains, no, that people live better than any more than any person of the

city. And in those as as hendas there, in that person, in that

there's there, there's piscina, there cabos of pass there,

there, those abitations, no, it's It's like elegant. It's elegant. That one's not imagine that is that is there.

They live as a narcos. As a narcos that we in the States imagine when we say narcos. What the people, I also, when for the first time I entered to I, I imagined that I was to, and, and, literally, is a mountain and all.

But when you enter those as a asien, and you can get to the ascent and and you get to the pizina, then one says, I want to be so, Along with the clan of Gulfo, the Gulf clan, who began in the 90s as a right-wing paramilitary army funded by Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel to combat the ELN and the FARC, these three groups are responsible for nearly all of the cocaine that get shipped around the world. The entry to Caloto, Corinto, the Palo, Puerto Tejah, that is a zone of guerrilla,

a lot, you can say? And the roja, is a lot, so you can say? In Colombia, the cities, the area, and the area, and the area. But when you say, when you say about the guerrilla, what do you referre to?

The FAR, Forces Armed Revolutionary, of Colombia. That is the part of the control of the Yes, it's for there. And the other side? Here is more than all the N, here in Santandel. There are they, they are the other.

Over there, is controlled by the ELN, the Eercito Liberation National. And then farther down that way is the FARC. That's FARC territory. And then this little zone right here is controlled by the military. And in this moment, who has more, like group is more influential in the... In this moment, in this moment, the Klan of Gulf, the Klan of the Gulf and the LN also.

Las FAR not so. Their best customer is the Sinaloa cartel. The cartel of Sinaloa is a conventy with the guerrilla. Qual guerrilla. There are various guerrillas. In fact, the LN.

What's the cartel of Senaloa is one of the carteres that's pesaned here. They're patrocinoing. So, the cartel of Sanalo is not patosinand to narcotifigants in here.

In fact, major Mexican drug trafficking organizations have now begun to invest directly into cocaine production in Colombia, buying the land to grow the coca leaf and then the warehouse space to refine the leaf into cocaine. They've effectively become a silent partner in the three biggest cartels in Colombia.

The poverty-stricken barrios of Kali serve as recruitment centers for Colombian cartels looking for reliable soldiers like Pedro. They're going to the menores, the lives that they've seen, and they'll try, and they were to rob, to do things to make the courage, like if it's made a madder for this, no? And then,

they pass to talk to, and, many times, even with the mom, the papa. Well, you know, your son pertains to us, too, and I'm notherit with the police, because we're here,

the, a whelit, the wailita, you know. And there, a campment, trainingment, to, now, to, to,

to, to, to, a really a, what, a, a, a, a, a bandido, you can't say. And in that campment, I was in that campament, I was in that I was in that campament, eight months, and I was that I, that was a little more than all of the guerrilla, how it's that,

well, when, you, they're, because there's always a reclutator, in every barrio, they're going to be reclutators, and then, then, then, then, these menores,

now are being recruited or or are elected or vistas. For the most, before that, they're going to get to a camp. When you enter to the campment, the first one, first you,

first they're, they're saying, that you're not you can't be able the mouth, that calliado, first the psychology,

you have their process, you manage the psychology, that one not will escape of them because they're in all Colombia, that no pensions in that. From there, you know,

one passes to the system of tactics, because you're also, you know, they're teaching tactics, you, when you're going to do make a while you're going to do, because all has your, your trainingment, look, look,

how in the zone, ask, I know a person, I know how it's for there, if he's going to try a, a sequestra-in-the-caro, manage the tranquillity,

It's a process. And there, you know, even, you know, even to tell you, not to make the people because if you, there's

a reason funnible, a reason acceptable for you can't make that you don't know that's too.

And there is the training to you're trying a grenade, you're to teach to you're to

do you, to start, more than us, more than us did a eight and a Zisawer, a 9,

that is the that we We use more than all that is, and you're just to take tactics, to to gore, you're going to a terratenient, practically. And that's entrenment, it's a few months,

a few years. And if you, you're very, very good, you're with the suites with the suites, then you're a little little bit delicate, one, no,

as not, not to show much ability to, because you can't get, too, that's, that tactic military, me,

entient, offensive, defensive, involvement, how attack, how to come in, gollar, how to, all that. So, there are

places of this thing, that's professionalize well, that know, army and disarm, that know the fusel,

that know, that, that's a guy, that can be a person, and could be a person,

and not, and not, and that's, and that's to make, disqual-stice, that's normal in the groups.

Due to increased military presence, Colombian cartels don't operate overtly in large cities anymore. one does the job or receive drug,

transport, or the work that you have to do. But really, really one not can't really,

because we have a rank more more high to be to be able to see with this people

to face to be but there there, for the most right Don Mario I'll

I think the number because he already is like so much that he's

like the intermediary of here. So he is the who's the work the job

and he is the that they in the barrio or in the city. Like Mexican

cartels, they do their dirt from the safety of the countryside and utilize

neighborhood urban street gangs as middle men between themselves and their

recruits. All want to do do a competition and for those

are the people are those are the recruiters those those who They reclutem, young, because most of all are

young, those who are reclutans from the chiquetons, for that they're in this, in this world of the delinquency, in narcotraffic. That's the the battle, also, also, for doing the of these

of these groups. So, there's where the band that most prove, finura, here in Cali, the more that's the that's the more that can't with errors, to that's the

in exchange, they sell weapons to these gangs and supply them with cocaine at wholesale for them to break down and sell as Basuko, which is Columbia's version of crack inside of drug-infested zones like this one we went to. Spring weekends are all about family, sunshine, and evenings on the patio. Before everyone arrives, I stop by my local total wine and more to grab a great bottle to share. With such a wide selection and the lowest prices, it's easy to find something amazing for everyone to enjoy. If you're not sure what to pick, their friendly guides can help. Find what you love and love what you find only at Total Wine and More. Shop total Wine and More

in store or online. Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. B-21. Like, one twenty-one, beautiful, beautiful. That's why you, where one's where you say, but what has done, but it's, it's, that's paying the errors of his parents. Kidnapping is a favorite pastime

of Colombian criminal organizations, and lately it's making a comeback. To who sequestered? Sequext, people of the people, the people, of people, people, in zones,

in the areas, in the cocalera, yeah? So he got this, this is he was going to, he's, for example, 1,500 hectares or 1,000 estari. So, that this sir, this is he got around more than 1,000 million of the pesos. So, so he's going to grab this person, is he going to retainer, and,

simply, it's going to see 600 million. We're not, we, we're not, that if it's a person, well, you know, some, well, a functionary,

not a little some who are some people, some that they want to

be the victim, obviously with all the savourity of the world, yeah

it's to get for a terron, or if it or depending the band

that they did it the the job, if me the barrio. And there

it has been until they get in the accord, eh, we have to the patient, what we're going

to do with it, still via telephonic but talking about the fruit, I'm the fruit,

I'm the little, the perrito, yeah, yeah, they say, well, trygala,

and it's to get to the night. Uh, or a sometimes, too, a day,

that at the middle day, the retent, because to get to the city, with a sequestra,

not easy. So, for that are, two men's that go in a motor

much more ahead and the phone to those who come in the car with the

patient and the patient and the patient is that you're going to think that they're to get in the

ball like in the movies and quietecito or quietecito and he has to cooperate because

you have to get to get a some family where you don't copere here

if cooperer no it will be to happen that it's also to

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C-O-N-N-E-C-T to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It's good to be right. Not only are cartels able to recruit cicarios like Pedro to kidnap people for cheap, but in the rural areas, the ELN and the FARC have been forced recruiting soldiers into their ranks for years. Listen, as a former Guerrilla talks about her job helping to kidnap young men from small Colombian towns to fight for the FARC. My function was to go to to people, to other

places, to rescat their children of 17, 13, 12 years to get to the organization. Is it common for women to be part of the guerrillas? Yes, it's common because, I mean, they're reclutal, no? And always use the women

for sus and the women, for that one who gets there and for the children also. It's primordial that the mothers in front. But at least there's a little a little they're going to

to get them to their house, so the family so they're nothing to they're

to do it, to them to do it what they want, so it's incredible tenace.

And there's nothing you can do. There's nothing that a family can do if their child gets taken, kidnapped, and brought and brought

forced to fight, you can't call the government for help? No, because one of menace them. In the moment that one's caught in the hands of them, they're going to do what they're doing, they're going and they're to make them to the mom, to the papa, to the family, complete. So, they're going to the nil of the perra. So, you're obligatorially to one

let's say to what they say to what they say, for the Make no mistake, the guerrillas have always used terroristic methods to achieve their aims. In fact, a week before we arrived in the city, a car bomb detonated in front of a Navy base in downtown Kali, killing 18 people, including civilians. This attack was meant to send a clear message to the military. Back off. Colombian cartels are constantly fighting for more territory. It's vital to them.

The more territory they control, the more coca leaf they can cultivate. and ultimately the more cocaine they can export. When you say that one, one, one, one, one, you know, to be able to, you're all in general. We got a lot of a lot of respect, for what it was, because the Aguilas Negr came to a moment, that when it was to get a,

to get a, that, for, that, for militar, that, simply, Rans, and was, so, obviously, For the past 30 years, the United States has funded Coca-Croix, eradication projects in Colombia. And to no one's surprise, it hasn't done any good. In fact, it's had the opposite effect.

Here is a former commander for the ELN describing how Guerrilla groups violently take territory and how it is virtually impossible for the Colombian military to leave a meaningful dent in their operations. The Aguilas Negras is a group that began to surge from, I, from 2000,

from 2000, to be here, me the Aegeas Negras is a group that started really with much

force, much potency, abacando all the parts of the parts rural where the part of the coca

people who went to and squartisand passing by over the war where the Agilas Negras

they were they were they were they were when it was when it when it was when it was

a zone that was a woman there were there are the It's a cycle. Quartisan, motosierras, and ganada in the war. It's a cycle.

Whenever the Colombian government starts putting too much pressure on them, starts destroying too many coca leaf grows or blowing up too many coca labs, that's when the bombs begin to detonate, and the infamous Plan Pistola gets reactivated. The so-called Plan Pistola, and that's a fiesta for the muchachios, because it's a lot of time. The so-called Plan Pistola is a phenomenon that goes back to Pablo Escobar and his war with the government back in the 1990s.

Plan Pistola is when a cartel puts an open contract on any police or military official and offers much better rates to cicadios than an ordinary murder would. The plan pistol, you know, that they're just a pure, you know, the plan Pistola is of functionaries for yeah, so, me understand, are, so, me understand, so there, there's a lot. And, more than all, they're just with the kids of them, because you know, because you know, political is difficult to to trap.

Some, are other, what are other, other, other, other other

band that's in Bogotah, and they're in those they're in those but we're here in Calita

at this, one of us a little a braanquilla, we had to to get to get,

we're, we'd say, we'd say, we had to get a patient, that

We traveled an hour south of Kali into the heart of the Valle de Kauka, a hotbed of guerrilla and cartel activity. We're out in the sticks right now, just outside of Kali. We're on our way to Santander, Achilichal, and that's where our buddy, Gustavo, when he kiddaps people for the guerrillas in the city of Kali, he brings them out to this little town where he then passes him off to the guerrilla groups or whoever has ordered him to do the kidnapping and then they either hold them for ransom out there or they kill them. But you can see this whole area right here. It's sugarcane.

Sugarcane fields and abandoned industrial parks and so, so many people have been taken out and buried out here. You can't even believe it. I mean, this is ghetto Colombia. This is like old school Columbia. The whole country used to be operate like they do here, which is basically violence with impunity. You know, we just talked to this kid. He's killed 30 people at least, and he goes, but I've never had a problem with the law. We moved along on Interstate 25, a busy highway known for rampant smuggling of marijuana, cocaine, and weapons. This is a high traffic highway, and everything goes here.

You have drugs, you have kidnappers, you have guerrilla, you have drug dealers. Everybody is going through this area. They have to go through here. They have no choice. So you never know. I mean, you see a normal car just passing by with tinted windows and it could be full of marijuana because that's how they have stopped a lot of these cars

or buses and they're just full of marijuana and or cocaine. It's easy to kill them here because you just kill them right here and then you chop them up and you start sending them down that little stream because you see right now it's a low stream. But when it rains really high, This can come up to right here. You can see right there the watermarks. So that starts pushing everything away

and it just pushes it away. And that's it, you get rid. What they do is they use these places whenever these dogs want to come over here and hide drugs or something because the neighborhood is hot, they will bring them here. Or sometimes when somebody gets kidnapped and they gotta be held for a while,

while maybe the other people come and get him or whoever they negotiated him with, then they will come and bring them here and they'll keep them here. There's eight to ten of these on the long way from here to the nearest city. In that area, in the cauca, that's full of bodies. There's probably more bodies than fish. Pedro took us to the actual road where he drops off his kidnapped victims, which he refers to as patience and hands them off to the cartel.

As you've left the caro here, so we'd we'd have us. From there, behind the carretera, and they'd, they'd, they'd they're up, I know that at this hour, they've been here, now they'd have to be here, we'd have the cange, or they'd us and we'd just go to know you, so, that's, that's, we don't know you, that's, we'd never to go, and we'd to get it,

yeah, the most rapid as possible. And here, so we'd see the can't, then we'd go from here, because, I know that in any moment, It's an active area, and he assured us that the guerrillas had spotters with sniper rifles pointed at us while we were filming. Where, more or less, they're placed, they're there with some cameras that are too, they're too, they're almost good, so they're, they're entraned, and as they're tremendous puntery, they're, there's, there's 40, 50, 60, franco-tiro, so it's impossible to put

to one to inventing for there. It's impossible because there's too, and you know where they're to to start out. They're just being trained exclusively for that. But now, I want to go. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

It's wanted right now by some guys from the ELN over a botched kidnapping, where he ended up killing the kidnap victim as well as his best friend. We're sequestrating a muchach, that man, that's a man, he's, he's, he, and a company her mother's, he was a, for peg her for,

how to how to you get it he was he was right where where we're

right. I was I was that we we didn't we not we don't,

so I would I would say to he said to let me go backmone and we we're

we had a man, that the patient we tried, the patient, he didn't, and I know, I know that if we we'd get that with that person was a murder

because he had passed with other other companions, and he was like like a loco, and then then also, he,

me, my company he, he, he, he said, or we, go, or we, put in the and up,

we up, the car, When I said, no, this is just out of control, I'm going to make to make me say, let's just, let's just, let's just let's let's just let's pass, we're just we're just making a victim here, and we're just, we'll just to get a P-pass to him.

That's my companion of all the life. Right now, Pedro tells us, the ELN has become the strongest organization in Colombia. After the FART Guerrillas made a peace-trade with the Colombian government in 2016. The FAR, although the FAR has been going to have been going to have been

that's what it was, it was like one, and there's a little and the ELN is still by here, pising, and what group, to your opinion,

has more power in this, in this zone? Before the FAR, not, the FAR, the guerrilla, and they were the guerrilla,

before, But as they've been overroning and now is to pizant here the LLN. That's the YLN has made no such treaty, however, and now control enormous areas in the coca-growing regions of southern Colombia and western Venezuela. They've also displaced countless farmers and ranchers

from their lands all over the Valle de Kauka. They just rolled in, threatened them, and ran them off, converting the stolen property into cocaine labs, safe houses, and sometimes just to party. The desplasos are they, those guerrilla, let's take their fink. And then, from there to go to Cali, to refugia to refugia to the help. So, from there to go to the hires. How many people do you think work for the guerrillas? It's innumerable.

Because in every municipality, in every city, in every people, there, there, there a groupito. not you know specifically how... But it's immense. Inumerables. The organization, the guerrilla, the LN, is a... It's a... It's a group of intelligence,

that's not that... ...that's not what they met, what they met, practically. The guerrilla is an organization of high potency. It has the almas more potentes that the...

So, the government, no, still, no, still don't... ...theirmen not... Obviously, granade, it's 60, Lance a granada, so I mean, it's a granada, we understand, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna,

some of a lot of guns, like, M.Gsenta. If you met in a group little, then, obviously, the group's so they'll come. It amazes me how, in the modern era, a criminal group of only 6,000 members is able to hold power over so much territory against a sophisticated army that receives much of its funding from the United States.

How is that possible? The answer is obvious, of course. The government is in on it. You know, of the corruption or the collaboration between the capos of the group and the commanders of the military? There is collaboration or communication? It's always, it has.

It has, clear. Corruption, a lot. All is the money, no? All right, and it has to have. So, you have seen, with his own eyes, the members of the government, getting with narcos or guerrillas. Sure, not you can't say in this moment the

numbers, but yes, yeah, but we're just, we're just near, the place of the military, the other side of the carterer. Sergit-it-as, like they're are the residents. They're basically.

But there are laboratories, laboratories of coca, entrainments desolados. How can they can't get from that so close to the military? How is possible? When you finally find your thing, you want the whole world to know about that thing.

So you use a thing called Canva to make it an even bigger and better thing. Whether you want to create flyers for that thing, make presentations for that thing, or design merch for that thing, you can do anything. So people can see your thing, feel your thing, love your thing. The next thing you know, it's a thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing. It's curious, no, if you're right. It's all right. Here's the army.

Here's the army. As you can see, there's a base of the airs. They're here. So what they do them separator practically and it's being the, the via.

So they, more than all, more than all, more than all, more than all as to all corruption in this moment because when they

enter in the drug, you want to take the drug the drug, the drug is out of here liberally a lot of it's all the base

there's the place there's the place of the place and we're doing we're getting when we're when we're

four maximum four in the car we're back and it's like if all over because one

could be to get to callie one had a salia a live the plant dawns

and if we're not no there's no realty, no sincerity, uh, you, uh,

essentially, you're with a cargament and, and there are some militars, mirand, and you know, that you

offered you two hundred millions, and so they put their gauh and they're in their way, and go to

many people. It's just that simple. Do a million people depend on it for their livelihoods? I think a million is not enough because, because,

first of all, in the mountain for the crops, everybody, depends on that, the campesinos depend on that, the economy in these little cities depend on that. And whatever other people, whatever other money people have invested in these types of businesses also depend on that. And then the hoods depend on that. The big cities depend on drugs. A lot of these businesses are owned by capos or have something to do with drug laundering,

you know, the money that comes from the state. and there's no putting that cat back in the bag. Look, if you're going to sembrate, for example, platano, yucas, things of that, is a value very bad. A person in the month, can simply, at the three months, can cut the racimito of plato,

and go there and it's simplyamette or $10,000 or $20,000. But you, at the three months, cocechew, and you're, of two millions to up. Pedro feels confident he can survive the green light that's on his head, and one day move up to become

a narco himself, a boss, or perhaps even escape the life completely. What I'm going to do? What is the film? Because to make in this life at the principle is good. For what you, see the money, motos, you're contacted with persons

of the power and all. But, but, but, it's always the story, if you're about in the war, always the testimony is the most, goce and then

suffer. After you have in 20 years a know of a route, of the plata, of the of the commandant, and that you say that's going to be going to be to enterer?

You know all the movements of entregers, and you're going to say, I'm going, something is difficult because these organizations

are all over where you want where you want to the city, always have to be always have connections. This is like a red. We're in fact that we're in factored.

I'm in reality, I can't go to my country, because me, they're not, I mean, we're really. And we're going

because we decided that, as I, as a Colombian, we, we need to do that

we're to we're doing a new new. I don't know if could be in another day to go to

another life, because I'm still, but it's the destiny that I chose, the way that I I chose, as I said, nobody's obliged. But, but, well, I'm here, I'll stay front-eating, I'll stay up where God me get. And if you're going to to get to say, I'm going to die in the raya, parading, as I'm

I'm going to. I sure hope he can make it out. I'll be rooting for him. God wants to get to the eyes of the young, no? because this came we always

we think other opportunities, but the result the desenlaces is the same, the murder.

And if not the murder of your and the death of your and then I think you have to

asforz and try more of, there's other out the only that I can

say. If you know, no, no, no, I recommend to the

young to be that's Lastimusamously, they're in our communities, without opportunity. No recommender that cogeran this community. That's other,

other salinas that I know that there. No comment on the error that we've committed, many who are who are present, are most of those who are not going to, lastimusamity. Thank you again for watching this video. As the madness continues,

we will continue to cover it. Leave a like and a comment if you stayed this far, and we will see you next time. My name is Johnny Mitchell. Take care. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th. The powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th.

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