Episodes
| Episode | First Broadcast | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | 20120116 | Written by Ioan Grillo. As a teenager in Brighton the author witnessed the rise of drug use in 1980s Britain. He also knew four young men who died of heroin overdoses. Twelve years ago he arrived in Mexico with ambitions to be 'a foreign correspondent in exotic climes'. But the most compelling story that demanded attention was the extraordinary and terrifying power of the drug cartels and the violent world of 'El Narco'. It all begins with a simple flower on a hill. Asian opium poppies (as trafficked and traded by the British from India to China ) arrived in Mexico with Chinese labourers in the 1860s. Read by Rupert Degas Asian opium poppies arrived in Mexico with Chinese labourers in the 1860s. [R4 BD=2012011 |
| 02 | 20120117 | Written by Ioan Grillo. Mexican Chinese traffickers cash in on America's illegal opium market and the mountain farmers of the Sierra Madre begin to find a way out of poverty. As a teenager in Brighton the author witnessed the rise of drug use in 1980s Britain. He also knew four young men who died of heroin overdoses. Twelve years ago he arrived in Mexico with ambitions to be 'a foreign correspondent in exotic climes'. But the most compelling story that demanded attention was the extraordinary and terrifying power of the drug cartels and the violent world of 'El Narco'. Read by Rupert Degas Mexican Chinese traffickers cash in on America's illegal opium market. [R4 BD=2012011 |
| 03 | 20120118 | Written by Ioan Grillo. American drug policy shapes the future of 'El Narco'. Kingpins and cartels emerge. As a teenager in Brighton the author witnessed the rise of drug use in 1980s Britain. He also knew four young men who died of heroin overdoses. Twelve years ago he arrived in Mexico with ambitions to be 'a foreign correspondent in exotic climes'. But the most compelling story that demanded attention was the extraordinary and terrifying power of the drug cartels and the violent world of 'El Narco'. Read by Rupert Degas [R4 BD=2012011 |
| 04 | 20120119 | Written by Ioan Grillo. Amid the violence and the bloodshed the drug underworld feeds its own peculiar culture including the 'narcocorridos' the ballads that depict the dramas and deaths of 'los valientes'. As a teenager in Brighton the author witnessed the rise of drug use in 1980s Britain. He also knew four young men who died of heroin overdoses. Twelve years ago he arrived in Mexico with ambitions to be 'a foreign correspondent in exotic climes'. But the most compelling story that demanded attention was the extraordinary and terrifying power of the drug cartels and the violent world of 'El Narco'. Read by Rupert Degas The drug underworld feeds its own peculiar culture with ballads depicting the dramas. [R4 BD=2012012 |
| 05 LAST | 20120120 | Written by Ioan Grillo. Crime and punishment. Politics and the law. Is El Narco a criminal movement or is it an insurgency that threatens the very state itself ? As a teenager in Brighton the author witnessed the rise of drug use in 1980s Britain. He also knew four young men who died of heroin overdoses. Twelve years ago he arrived in Mexico with ambitions to be 'a foreign correspondent in exotic climes'. But the most compelling story that demanded attention was the extraordinary and terrifying power of the drug cartels and the violent world of 'El Narco'. Read by Rupert Degas Is El Narco a criminal movement or an insurgency that threatens the very state itself? [R4 BD=2012012 |