El Narco (48 page)

Mixing up coca paste in a clandestine lab in Putumayo, Colombia. (Oliver Schmieg)

The finished product. A kilo brick of pure cocaine. The markings indicate which cartel it belongs to. (Oliver Schmieg)

Economy of scale. Soldiers tear up an industrial-size marijuana plantation in Sinaloa. (Fernando Brito)

Drug-ballad crooners Grupo Cartel pose outside the Humaya cemetery in Culiacán. The towering mausoleums are of deceased narcos. (Fernando Brito)

Holy Death. The faithful pray, dance, and smoke outside a shrine to the Santa Muerte in Tepito, Mexico City. (Keith Dannemiller)

Mexico’s Eliot Ness. President Felipe Calderón explains his drug-war strategy. (Keith Dannemiller)

A soldier at the scene of a cartel killing in Sinaloa. (Fernando Brito)

Assassin Gustavo inside a cartel safe house in Medellín, Colombia. (Oliver Schmieg)

One move and you’re dead. Colombian special forces bust a truckload of cocaine. (Oliver Schmieg)

Urban war. Soldiers run to a crime scene in Culiacán. (Fernando Brito)

A cartel murder victim in Sinaloa. (Fernando Brito)

Daily mourning. Family members lay to rest a murdered police officer in Sinaloa. (Fernando Brito)

Body messaging. A corpse decorated by gangsters in Sinaloa. (Fernando Brito)