Peru's cocaine runways
Small planes are hauling more than a ton of cocaine a day out of remote jungles in Peru that have become the world's No. 1 coca-producing region, right under the nose of Peru's military.
Roughly half of Peru's cocaine exports have been ferried eastward on this "air bridge." Since 2012, the rugged Andean nation has surpassed Colombia as the world's leading cocaine exporter. Police say each plane load is worth at least $7.2 million overseas.
In this photo, a soldier stands guard during the destruction of a clandestine airstrip in the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River Valleys, or VRAEM (Spanish acronym), in Ayacucho, Peru, September 19, 2014.
Peru's cocaine runways
A military attack helicopter flies over Pichari, Peru in the VRAEM region, September 19, 2014.
According to a recent AP investigation, drug corruption is rife across Peruvian institutions. The narco-flight plague exposes the armed forces' drug-war failure because the military controls the valley, from which Bolivia-bound flights stepped up in tempo in the past few years, according to prosecutors, drug police, former military officers and current and former U.S. drug agents.
Following the AP's report, Peru's defense minister announced an investigation into military corruption in the region, October 14, 2015.
Peru's cocaine runways
Explosives are detonated by Peruvian counter-narcotics forces on part of a clandestine grassy airstrip in the VRAEM, September 19, 2014.
According to authorities, the area has no radar coverage and the neighboring nations' air forces are limited so drug flights can only be intercepted on the ground.
Peru's cocaine runways
The Ene river is seen from a military helicopter as it flies over the VRAEM region, in Pichari, Peru, September 19, 2014.
The trafficking got so brazen that congress voted unanimously in August 2015 to authorize shooting down the single-engine planes ferrying cocaine. The government recently scrapped plans to buy the required state-of-the-art radar, a $71 million expenditure it announced in November 2014.
Peru's cocaine runways
A counter-narcotics officer in Junin explains to the press the two-week campaign to eradicate clandestine airstrips at the Mazamari counter-narcotics military base in the VRAEM region, September 19, 2014.
Some 6,000 soldiers are stationed at more than 30 bases in the valley, ostensibly to battle "narcoterrorism." By law, counter-narcotics is the job of the fewer than 1,000 narcotics police. But police rely on the military for airlift and many chafe at joint drug missions with soldiers.
Peru's cocaine runways
Soldiers sit in front of an image of Jesus Christ embracing a praying soldier, inside a building at the Mazamari counter-narcotics base in VRAEM, September 19, 2014.
An average of about 4-5 small planes daily fly into Peru from Bolivia, picking up about 300 kilos each of coca paste worth around $300,000 dollars in Bolivia.
Peru's cocaine runways
Clandestine airstrips are seen from a military helicopter in Pichari in the VRAEM region, September 19, 2014.
One accused narco-pilot interviewed by the AP said some local military commanders charge $10,000 per flight to let cocaine commerce go unhindered, "no plane arrives without at least half a million dollars to pay for the drugs, for the airstrip and to corrupt the authorities."
Peru's cocaine runways
A counter-narcotics police officer paints the face of a comrade before taking part in a parade commemorating Peru's Independence Day, inside their base in Tingo Maria, Peru, July 27, 2015.
The elite counternarcotics police work in the dense central jungles of Peru.
Peru's cocaine runways
Counter-narcotics officers make a hole for placing explosives during the destruction of a clandestine airstrip in the VRAEM region in Ayacucho, September 19, 2014.
The dynamiting of craters by Peruvian security forces into the airstrips cuts into profits but hardly discourages cocaine traffickers who net tens of thousands of dollars with each flight.
Peru's cocaine runways
Peruvian narcotics police stand next to a plane allegedly destroyed by residents in an effort to hide evidence connected to a clandestine airstrip in VRAEM, September 19, 2014.
Peru's cocaine runways
Peru's President Ollanta Humala, a former army lieutenant colonel, greets well wishers as he walks with his wife Nadine Heredia, left, to the government palace during Independence Day celebrations in Lima, July 28, 2015.
When Humala took office in 2011, he declared combatting illicit drugs a priority. Despite the destruction of record amounts of coca leaf, Peru remains the world's largest cocaine producer.
The president has just eight months left in office - and an approval rating below 15 percent.
Peru's cocaine runways
Members of the Police Special Operations Division, DINOES, pull security after an official ceremony in Puerto Ocopa in the VRAEM region, June 3, 2015.
The Ireland-sized area has been under a state of emergency for nine years owing to the persistence of drug-running Shining Path rebels. They have slain more than 30 police and soldiers during Humala's tenure but are now down to about 60 combatants. The government says destroying coca in the region would cause a bloody backlash by fueling Shining Path recruitment.
Peru's cocaine runways
Police officers stand guard over seized cocaine they present to the press in Lima, September 1, 2014.
The packages are part of a 7.7 metric ton seizure made in the northern city of Trujillo on August 26, the largest in Peru's history.
Peru's cocaine runways
Soldiers carry a TV after descending from a helicopter at Mazamari anti-drugs military base in Junin in the VRAEM, September 19, 2014.
The "narco planes" often touch down just minutes by air from military bases in the nearly road-less region known as the VRAEM.
Wilson Barrantes, a retired army general who has long complained about military drug corruption, said giving the armed forces control of the cocaine-producing valley is "like putting four street dogs to guard a plate of beefsteak."
Peru's cocaine runways
In this July 31, 2015 photo, counter-narcotics special forces study a map at their headquarters, before starting an operation to destroy a clandestine airstrip in Ciudad Constitucion.
Peru's cocaine runways
Counter-narcotics officers walk on an airstrip strewn with boulders in the VRAEM, September 19, 2014.
The boulders are used as a way to camouflage the airstrips from air observation. Security forces say that traffickers pay local villagers to keep the runways hidden and to repair them when they are cratered in counter-narcotics operations.
Peru's cocaine runways
Peruvian counter-narcotics police blast a hole in a clandestine airstrip used by cocaine traffickers in Ciudad Constitucion, July 28, 2015.
President Ollanta Humala points to the cratering of these landing strips more than 550 times as part of the country's success against the drug trade. Traffickers quickly fill the holes using local labor, police say.
According to Rep. Emiliano Apaza, president of Congress' defense committee, the Andean nation has been spending more than $8 million a year blasting holes in clandestine airstrips.
Peru's cocaine runways
A soldier signals to his commander while standing inside a crater created by explosives planted by Peruvian counter-narcotics forces on a clandestine airstrip in the VRAEM region, September 19, 2014.
Peru has blown craters into 132 clandestine airfields this year, up from 110 last year. The dynamiting of craters into clandestine airstrips by security forces cuts into profits but hardly discourages cocaine traffickers who net tens of thousands of dollars with each flight flown from these airstrips. The landing areas are often fixed overnight.
Peru's cocaine runways
The Mazamari counter-narcotics military base in the VRAEM region, September 19, 2014.
In documents and testimony obtained by the AP, police and anti-drug prosecutors questioned the military's trustworthiness and expressed their suspicions that intelligence was leaked to traffickers. Before the narco-flight boom, the military sent people to the valley to be punished for transgressions, said Victor Andres Garcia Belaunde, an opposition congressman. "But it has, alas, become profitable to be in VRAEM and today there are officers who ask to go."