The Cocaine wars - Germany's fight against drug gangs DW Documentary

Via bombings, kidnappings, blackmail and even torture, competing criminal gangs are making themselves known. And while doing so, innocent lives are also being taken - leaving the authorities deeply alarmed.

They fear that conditions are starting to mirror those in the neighboring Netherlands, where a high-profile investigative journalist was murdered by hired guns, and judges and prosecutors have received death threats. Nor do the gangs responsible shy from intimidating politicians and the royal family. Struggling to find attorneys willing to defend key witnesses, European authorities have had to recruit lawyers from abroad. In an organized crime business worth billions of euros, anyone who stands in the way runs the risk of being targeted by the cartels. This global war rages on in Europe and is increasingly stretching the German state to its limits. The makers of this film accompanied the country's interior minister and senior law enforcement officials on their visit to South America to expand international cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking. They also talked to criminal lawyers, toxicologists and police investigators in this ever escalating conflict. Are the cocaine wars winnable, or is it already too late?

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