The Drug Cartels

When Mexico begins to crack down on the drug trade in the mid-1970s, Colombia emerges as a new supplier. At one point in the late 1970s Colombian exports of marijuana account for 70 percent of the U.S. market. Powerful cartels form in Medellin and Cali to control the trade and begin using their marijuana profits to grow cocaine, a more lucrative product. In the late 1970s drug cartels and guerrilla groups start working together -- the guerrillas protecting the land, the cartels running the drugs, and both benefiting from the profits. As the cartels increase their profits and diversify into cattle ranching and other enterprises, the guerrillas begin to see them as part of the ruling class, and turn against their former allies.