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How Cocaine Trafficking Actually Works | How Crime Works | Insider - YouTube
Channel: Insider
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My name is Pieter Tritton, aka Posh Pete.
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I smuggled over 5 million pounds' worth
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of cocaine internationally.
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This is how crime works.
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I've been in prison with people there,
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capos from the Sinaloa cartel,
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bosses from the Colombian cartels.
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And even when they were in
their heyday, making millions,
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the amount of fear and paranoia
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that they had to contend with,
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people trying to kill them,
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people trying to take
their business from them.
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And then the end, what
did they end up with?
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They ended up going to
prison for a long time
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and losing all of it, pretty much.
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I am extremely lucky to be alive.
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In my opinion, the risk
is not worth the reward.
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Cocaine is farmed in,
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well, farmed and produced
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in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia.
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The farms will generally
be in rural locations
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out in the countryside,
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where they will grow the coca bushes.
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They will crop the coca leaves.
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They will then be taken
to another location,
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which is the laboratory where
they will process the leaves.
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The cocaine, once it's
been processed in the lab,
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will be transported
probably down to the coast,
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normally, or to the ports.
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Also the capital, should we say, for sale.
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The farmers themselves
are paid quite poorly.
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They have to farm an acre of bushes
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for 1 kilo of cocaine.
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Once the cocaine is processed,
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I know in Peru you can
buy it for as little as,
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should we say, $700 up
to $1,200 for a kilo.
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The chemicals that we needed to buy
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in order to process the cocaine
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were quite difficult to get,
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because they were controlled things
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like methanol, which is a pure alcohol,
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hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acids,
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activated carbon, acetone.
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We had to basically make a fake company,
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a fake profile,
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have a number
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in order to be able to go to
these big chemical companies
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to then buy the chemicals from them.
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Because they wouldn't sell to
just anyone from the public.
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You had to be from a business.
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Ether is one that's
very highly controlled.
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Acetone as well, in South America.
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Ether is the big one,
because the ether washes,
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it used to be the best type
of wash to make cocaine.
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Sourcing tanker-loads of
ethers produced the cocaine.
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It's virtually impossible there now,
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so they're having to use other chemicals,
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which aren't quite as good.
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And that's one reason cocaine,
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if anyone out there has been
doing cocaine for a long time,
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they will now be able to tell
that the cocaine these days
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is not the same as cocaine 20 years ago.
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Because I've been around cocaine so much,
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I can, without even taking it,
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I can just rub it between my fingers,
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look at the color, smell it,
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and I can tell you pretty
much which country it's from
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by the chemicals that
have been used in it.
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My most successful method of smuggling
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was a form of impregnating
the cocaine into rubber.
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Through a Colombian connection,
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someone in Cali would buy the cocaine.
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They would then give it to, like,
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a basic chemist over there.
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So the cocaine would be put into liquid,
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and then into liquid latex,
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which would then be set in
sheets, very thin sheets.
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We would then put those latex sheets
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into the ground sheets of tents.
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So we would employ passengers, basically,
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to go and collect the tent
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after it had been
impregnated with the cocaine
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to then bring that back through customs.
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I kind of set some ground rules
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when it came to recruiting passengers.
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I would try and find
people that had, obviously,
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no criminal record, or fairly collected,
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you know, reasonably well presented.
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And just people that were fairly sensible,
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preferably someone that
was working already.
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And then we would pay them
between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds
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on their return to Britain
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once the drugs had been extracted.
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Or sometimes, if it was enough
funds, enough cash available,
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we'd pay them as soon as
they came off the plane
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and handed the tent over.
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First tent that we brought in,
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I flew to Quito in Ecuador.
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The tents had already been manufactured
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and the cocaine impregnated into it.
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I'd managed to get through unscathed,
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got back to Britain, landed, it's done.
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Fully expecting to be
stopped by the police there.
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So, yeah, I mean, I arrived
and just collected the tent
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and walked straight
through, and that was it.
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I mean, I was, to be honest,
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I was in shock that nothing happened.
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There was nearly 5 kilos
of cocaine in that.
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And having gone through that experience,
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I realized that this
method that we were using,
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of impregnating the cocaine into rubber,
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was definitely a good method.
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Because it, you know, I'd
just been stopped by customs
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and got through three customs checks —
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one in Ecuador, one in
Holland, and one in Britain —
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and come through with it fine.
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During the time that we were trafficking,
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we never actually lost a single shipment.
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The great thing about that method was
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that it wasn't detectable by X-ray.
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You can't detect it by a scanner.
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The dogs couldn't detect it,
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because obviously the cocaine
has been changed into rubber.
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And we used to counteract
the reactive test,
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the liquid test that they'd do,
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by putting in another chemical.
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I mean, that pretty much
nullifies all the checks
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that they can do on you.
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But there were definitely countries
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that we avoided going
through or trafficking in.
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A lot of the South Americans
that I've spoken to
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try to avoid trafficking in America.
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The DEA have got powers to come down
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to Colombia or Ecuador,
wherever, basically,
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and arrest you and then
take you back to the States
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and try you there.
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Places like Thailand, Indonesia,
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where they have the death
sentence, always big no-nos.
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Saudi Arabia, anywhere that's got
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the death sentence for drugs.
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Also countries with really harsh laws,
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high sentences.
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As far as other forms
of smuggling cocaine,
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obviously the cartels use
containers, shipping containers,
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to bring in the largest
shipments of cocaine.
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Tons at a time.
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This is normally done using
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corrupt port officials at both ends
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who facilitate the
movement of the cocaine.
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I didn't like the idea, personally,
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because I'd realized,
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having seen other people do it,
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and when it went wrong, the police officer
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or the customs agent involved
would always roll over
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and inform on all of the
other people involved.
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Recently, I've seen newer methods
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of smuggling cocaine across borders.
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I had a Russian friend
when I was in Ecuador,
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when I was in prison in Ecuador,
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who was captured with
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42 tons of cocaine,
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which was in barrels of molasses.
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It had been liquidized and
mixed into the molasses.
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I mean, there is just
a multitude of things
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it can be impregnated into.
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Once we managed to get the tents
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back through customs
and into Britain safely,
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we would then have to extract the cocaine
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using chemical processes.
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Any cut that was in there
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wouldn't come through in the process,
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so we were only left
with the pure cocaine.
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Once it was completely dry,
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we would cut it using phenacetin,
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which is what people call "magic."
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We would normally cut
it about 60% cocaine,
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40% phenacetin,
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and then repackage it and sell it.
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An early associate with whom
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I'd traffic drugs within the UK,
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so he put me in contact
with a Colombian in London
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who was already importing
cocaine into Britain
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via a contact of his in Cali, Colombia,
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who was operating with the Cali cartel.
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That became our source of
cocaine in South America.
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All of the cocaine we'd pay for up front
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using various different
money-transfer agencies,
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like Western Union, MoneyGram.
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We would always try and keep the transfers
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under 1,000 pounds at a time.
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We would use various people
to facilitate the transfers,
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because obviously we couldn't.
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Really, you can't use one person
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more than two or three times in a month.
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We had some underground
money-transfer agencies
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that were a bit corrupt, should we say,
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that would allow us to send
more than was registered.
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I did some workings out on the train,
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on the train journey down
here today, to London.
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So, from every $100 or 100 pounds' worth
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of cocaine that you buy,
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I would estimate that
about 2%, 1.5% to 2%,
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goes to the farmer who's
growing the coca leaf.
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Probably 35% to 40% goes to the cartel.
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But the cartels are,
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really, they're controlling the lab
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and then the shipping
out of South America.
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The remainder, we'll just say around 60%,
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would probably go to
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the dealers on the street.
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Much the same as OPEC
controls the supply of oil,
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the cartels control the
supply and flow of cocaine.
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The problem with drug trafficking
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is you're only going to be
able to do it for so long
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before you get caught.
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In the operation that I was carrying out,
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we tried to keep the
number of people involved
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to as small as possible,
because obviously,
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the less people know,
the less chance of it
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that somebody's going to
turn informant or betray you.
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The group that we had,
that was me, a Colombian,
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and a Chilean who were the key players.
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And then, obviously, we
would employ passengers
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to bring the tents back in.
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Well, after the Colombian
and the Chilean were arrested
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in a laboratory that was
raided in Crystal Palace,
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the Colombian was turned
by the British police
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and became an informant.
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We then started to see police activity
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around us quite frequently.
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So it became very much
a game of cat and mouse
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between them and us.
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I was arrested in Ecuador in 2005
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and ended up getting sentenced
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to 12 years in prison in Ecuador.
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I was diagnosed with complex PTSD,
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which is post-traumatic stress disorder,
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after having seen so much mayhem
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and death and destruction
in prison in Ecuador.
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I would say that the levels
of cocaine being produced
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are greater than ever these days.
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Even though there's
ever-greater demand for cocaine,
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the purity of cocaine has also increased,
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I think, because of the
increased production levels.
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We're now in the internet era.
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Encrypted technologies,
encrypted telephones,
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encrypted messaging services,
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and dozens of them.
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Nowadays, there's so
many ways, better ways,
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of transferring money around the world,
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such as bitcoin, ethereum.
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These are definitely being
used in the drug trade
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for facilitating large movements of cash.
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So it's a lot harder for the authorities
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to keep on top of all of this.
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In order to keep up with it,
the cartels have realized
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that you're always
going to be able to sell
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pure cocaine quicker
than you are cut cocaine.
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The sort of mafias, like the Albanians
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and the Russians and the Chinese,
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they are now sending their own
people out to South America
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to just buy the cocaine
from the cartels there,
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and then basically say goodbye to them
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and then facilitate
their own shipping back.
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So then that means they, then,
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have the whole share of the profit.
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The Albanian Mafia's
now very much in control
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of the whole trafficking
enterprise in Britain and Europe.
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And I think it's become
very much more controlled,
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very much more monopolized
than it used to be.
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There used to be smaller
people, like myself.
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Those smaller players have
been forced out of the market
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by the fact that the Albanians
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and the like of the Albanians
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have just got it stitched up.
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In my opinion, the government
can't win the war on drugs,
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and they're fully aware that they can't
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win the war on drugs.
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And if you talk to a lot
of high-ranking police,
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they will definitely tell you
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that the war on drugs is unwinnable.
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And in my personal opinion, the only way
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that the war on drugs
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will be won
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is to legalize all drugs,
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manufacture them under
license and strict control,
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and then tax them heavily
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in order to offset the
detrimental cost to society.
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Really, the key element in this
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is the financial gain of criminals.
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If you can take out the financial gain
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from the whole equation,
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then there's no incentive for
criminals to traffic drugs.
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So I don't think that
throwing more and more money
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at a border force and
trying to control it —
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and, say, eradication of crops.
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I mean, they've tried eradicating crops,
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and that only had a detrimental effect
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on the people on the ground,
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because it destroyed other crops as well
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and led to disease and illness
and contaminated water.
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It's huge business, it being kept illegal,
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because it actually
creates more employment
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and more monetary gain, overall,
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for law enforcement, for
prisons, for the judiciary,
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for healthcare, for these drug companies
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making drugs that help with treatments.
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I got into selling drugs at an early age.
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I always had sort of an
entrepreneurial streak,
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but drugs was, at that
time, quite easy to do,
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and a lot of people seemed to be doing it.
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There were illegal raves every weekend,
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and loads of the people
at the opposite school
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started going to these parties.
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So, you know, instantly
there was a huge marketplace.
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Until I was arrested at 17,
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when I was at college,
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which put a stop to everything.
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You know, I saw how upset my family were,
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and I was worried about
not getting into university
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and jeopardizing my future.
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Trying to survive on a student loan,
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I realized that they don't go very far.
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That's when I first came
into contact with cocaine.
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Started selling cocaine
to a couple of students.
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Before I knew it,
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I was then selling cocaine
to the locals in Cardiff,
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and then I was selling to their dealers,
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and then I was selling
to their dealers in turn,
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and before I know it, I'm
supplying half of South Wales.
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And then ended up fanning out
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and spreading out into
the Bristol party scene
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and supplying loads of people there.
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The first time that I went
to prison, in England, I —
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I mean, yeah, I did
make contacts in prison.
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But, yeah, I suppose you
do make contacts in prison.
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I mean, they are the
finishing school of crime.
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Anywhere you go into prison,
anywhere on the planet,
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you will end up making contacts,
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because that's the nature
of the places that they are.
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I'm now going into schools,
colleges and universities,
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trying to educate people on the harm
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that cocaine, and drugs in general, do.
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It'll only end up with you
being captured or killed.
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And the effect that that will have
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on your family and friends is devastating.
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Since getting released from prison,
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I wrote a book called "El Infierno,"
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which is published by Ebury Penguin,
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which is all about my
time in prison in Ecuador.
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I'm currently writing the
prequel to that first book,
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and I'm hoping to get the two
of them made into a screenplay
[1007]
in order to make a Netflix
series or possibly a film.
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I have set up my own company
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with a view to making my
own chocolate products,
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chocolate drinks and bars,
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importing cacao from Ecuador.
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Not cocaine, cacao.
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So, yeah, we're going straight this time.
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