BBC joins Colombian commandos fighting 'never-ending battle' against drug gangs

We took off, flying over the district of Putumayo - close to the border with Ecuador - part of Colombia's cocaine heartland. The country provides about 70% of the world's supply.

President Donald Trump says Colombia's left-wing President Gustavo Petro is not doing enough to prevent cocaine from his country winding up on America's streets. Last month he called him "a sick man who likes selling cocaine to the United States" and said "he could be next" for US military intervention. But that threat appears to have receded.

President Petro counters that his government has seized the largest amount of drugs in history. But on his watch cocaine production has also soared to record highs, according to the United Nations 'World Drug Report 2025. Petro disputes the UN's method of counting.

The fight against drug production and trafficking from Colombia will be high on the agenda when the two presidents meet in the White House on Tuesday.

Two women and a man emerge from the trees, probably workers at the lab – willing or unwilling. One of the women is in torn clothing and all wear wellington boots. The commandos question them briefly but make no arrests. Colombia's anti -narcotics strategy targets those at the top of the cocaine trade, not the dirt-poor farmers at the bottom.

Minutes later we are rushed away as the commandos prepare to set the lab alight – destroying the crop, and the chemicals.

"There are 50 or 60 more labs in this area," says one officer, who does not want to be named.

His enemy is evolving. Colombia's drug gangs use drones and bitcoin and bring chemists into the jungle to create ingredients on site. Major Cedano Díaz, 37, admits the cocaine war may not be over his lifetime.

Under attack from Donald Trump for not doing enough, Colombia's Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez has defended his country's record, politely.

"The president has been misinformed," he told us. "We destroy cocaine factories every forty minutes. And over the past three and half years we have seized 2,800 tonnes of cocaine. That amounts to 47 billion doses of cocaine that never reached foreign markets."

He argues that the demand for cocaine is also a problem, not just the supply. "With cocaine use rising in Europe, it's very difficult to eradicate the supply here," he says.

Cocaine is the second most commonly used illicit drug in Europe – after cannabis – according to the European Union Drugs Agency. It says the availability and use of the of the drug continue to increase, "resulting in greater costs to society".