War on Drugs: Small circles in a vast sea
Colombian Army · Photography
Small circles on a map
Antipersonnel mines and gunfire make coca eradication in Colombia a job unlike any other. The men of the Army's anti-drug squads move through country where the ground itself can be the enemy, toward points marked on a map.
You smell a lab before you see it. The air thickens with the scent of acetone.
Who lives at the lab
Most of the time the labs are not run by cartels. They are worked by humble families who planted coca out of desperation rather than malice. The research group WOLA estimates that more than 200,000 Colombian households make their living growing it.
Colombia's own drug policy now says it out loud. In 2023 the Ministry of Defense called poor coca growers victims and pointed enforcement at the owners of the business. The job still has to be done. The soldiers clear the site and burn the lab to the ground.
The size of the sea
The numbers explain why the work never ends. UNODC counted 253,000 hectares of coca in Colombia in 2023, with a potential cocaine production of 2,664 metric tons, up 53 percent in a single year. The 2024 survey found 261,000 hectares.
The pressure runs the other way too. Colombia's Ministry of Defense reports 17,838 labs neutralized between 2022 and 2025, and in 2025 the Defense Minister put the pace at roughly one lab destroyed every 40 minutes. The National Police called the 889 tons of cocaine seized in 2024 the largest haul in the country's history.
The ground keeps count
Every step carries a price. Colombia's mine action office counts 12,673 victims of antipersonnel mines and unexploded ordnance, and 59 percent of them are members of the security forces. One in five does not survive.
By the end of the day the squad leaves the burning lab behind and moves on to the next spot on the map. Small circles, in a vast sea of cocaine.
Sources: UNODC and Government of Colombia coca monitoring surveys, 2023 and 2024; Colombian Ministry of Defense; Colombian National Police; Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, mine action (AICMA); WOLA.