Coca plants grow just two months a year amid the lush greenery of the Colombian countryside. But the cocaine those plants produce powers a multibillion-dollar industry that has spread around the world.
Despite the reputation for decadence and sophistication that has been built up around cocaine, the production process is simple.
Local farmers, sometimes families aided by neighbors, pick leaves by hand and then put them through a complex and noxious process to eventually turn those leaves turned into coca paste.
That paste can then be sold to traffickers, either Colombia's left-wing rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or one of the many gangs that have proliferated in the 20 years since the fearsome and powerful Medellin cartel of Pablo Escobar disintegrated in the wake of Escobar's ignominious death in 1993.
Despite intense and often-violent efforts by Colombia (with strong backing by the US) to reduce coca cultivation, the trade has seen a resurgence in recent years.
The photos below, taken by the Associated Press' Rodrigo Abd, document the coca-paste-production process, revealing the humble beginnings of one of the world's most lucrative illegal drugs.
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Antioquia, in red, links central Colombia to trafficking routes in Central America and the Caribbean. Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel was based out of the city of the same name, where he was killed in 1993.
Escobar's Medellin cartel fell apart after his death in 1993, and rival cartels soon suffered the same fate. Criminal networks, paramilitaries, and rebel groups (like the FARC) soon picked up the cocaine trade.
The first cocaine laboratory found inside the Medellin's urban area was uncovered earlier this month, where Colombian authorities found nearly 9 pounds of pure cocaine power that could have been converted into 26 pounds of the drug for distribution, likely in local markets, officials said.
"To have this laboratory in a residential sector carries risks for the population from the chemical ingredients and the dangers inherent to this illicit activity,"said Gen. Jorge Horacio Romero Pinzón, commander of the Colombian army's fourth brigade, according to El Tiempo.
In this January 7, 2016, photo, a coca field owned by Edgar and his father Gonzalo stands ready for harvest in the mountain region of Antioquia, Colombia. The family produces coca paste that is used to make cocaine at a humble home in territory controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
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