Original subtitles

MARIANA: I've been investigating drug traffickers

for over 15 years.

Often I'm a lone female journalist surrounded by masked

criminals, 99% of whom are men.

It's starting to boil and the crystal is starting to form

at the top.

But recently, I've heard tales of a new breed of

narco‐trafficker.

Women.

♪♪

MARIANA: Rumor has it these brash "Cocaine Queens" are

helping revolutionize the multi ‐billion dollar drug business.

And I'm on a mission to find them.

MARIANA: We'll call my driver "Luis."

He's a Rio native whose family has connections

to the city's criminal underworld.

(speaking native language).

MARIANA: The woman I'm searching for is definitely earning it.

She calls herself "Hello Kitty."

Just 21‐years‐old,

she's one of the most wanted drug traffickers in all of Brazil.

MARIANA: The prime suspect in multiple armed robberies

and murder.

And a rising cocaine distributor for one of the country's most

powerful drug gangs.

And my sources say she's holed up in Rio's favelas.

The slums and shanty towns that house more than

1.5 million people.

Nearly a quarter of the city's population.

So, we're entering the favela right now.

I have to stop, because there's these barriers

that exist at the entrance.

If anyone is trying to invade, it will slow down any invasion

by the police or rival gangs.

So, this is the things that you have to do

when you enter the favela.

Turn on the lights.

You see that the hazard lights are on.

LUIS: Stop, stop, stop, stop. MARIANA: Stop? Okay.

Put the, down, down. Cameras down. Cameras down.

MARIANA: When Brazilians boast that,

"God made the world in six days, and the seventh,

he devoted to Rio de Janeiro," they're not

talking about the favelas.

They're talking about this.

But there's a flip side to these sugarcoated pictures.

A kind of tale of two cities.

Extreme poverty fuels Brazil's black markets.

So much so, that today, after the United States,

Brazil is the world's largest cocaine consumer.

I've lived in Rio and have spent time in many favelas.

Places where crack, weed, cocaine and other illegal

substances are sold out in the open.

To safeguard the drug market, these slums are protected by

criminal gangs and their gatekeepers.

People like this woman.

MARIANA: It's rare to see a woman in a role like this.

But here I am, talking with this gang member in

front of her kids.

MARIANA: She tells me to call her Perigosa,

which means dangerous.

MARIANA: Perigosa's job is to oversee a 24‐hour surveillance

network, comprised of 21 look‐outs, called Radinhas,

Portuguese for the "Little Radios."

They are the eyes and ears of the narco‐traffickers.

Favelas are like fiefdoms,

most are controlled by powerful gangs.

Perigosa's people monitor all entries and exits,

so they can alert the gang leadership of any invasion by

rivals or cops.

Despite her key position, Perigosa is judged by her neighbors.

MARIANA: Perigosa tells me that the women who truly rise through

the ranks are the ones who put down their walkie‐talkie and

pick up a gun.

And if I want to find a cocaine queen like Hello Kitty,

I need to get closer to the product.

It's time to pound the pavement.

Luis' uncle was a founding member of the country's oldest

drug gang, Comando Vermehlo, The Red Command.

The same gang Hello Kitty is said to work for.

I think it's here. So, that's where we start.

MARIANA: I shouldn't be surprised.

Rio is a city of some 7 million people,

and The Red Command has many factions.

It's not easy finding one woman.

Even after the gang has opened their doors to me.

MAESTRO: Hello Kitty.

MARIANA: I'll take the maestro's word for it.

He's a 60 year old career criminal who now cuts cocaine

for Comando Vermelho, The Red Command.

One of three trafficking organizations that controls all

of the cocaine in Brazil.

What I'm discovering is that over the past two decades,

Brazil leveraged its location, bordering every coca producing

country to become a global distributor.

While Mexico's cartels move cocaine into the United States,

Brazil's gangs are now the top suppliers to Europe and Africa.

But a lot of this powder remains right here,

to satisfy the growing appetites of Rio's rich and poor.

They have this little spoon and they basically put the cocaine

inside these little bags.

And this sells for five reais,

which is currently worth a dollar.

And it's mostly sold in this neighborhood and neighborhoods

around here.

It's possible the cocaine I'm looking at will be sold by Hello

Kitty herself.

She works for the same gang as these guys.

So he was actually in

prison recently, and he's saying that even in prison,

they talked about her a lot.

That she was really good, she's a really good soldier.

MARIANA: Maestro believes that today's women have a unique

advantage, the element of surprise.

Cops still assume that cocaine traffickers look like Pablo

Escobar, not like Hello Kitty.

He says that the police is really targeting the men here.

Um, so, there's not gonna be a lot of men around to do this

kind of work.

So, it'll be up to the women to do it.

MARIANA: This is not Hello Kitty.

I'm still working my way up Comando Vermelho's chain of

command, but she is proof that while women don't yet rule Rio's cocaine market,

there are far more female narcos than

I ever imagined.

MARIANA: She calls herself "Bayern" after her favorite

soccer team.

Just 25 years old, Bayern came up in the gang as cocaine was

expanding its reach throughout Brazil.

Now, she's a soldado; a narco‐soldier who provides

security for the Red Command.

I have to admit, I'm impressed.

Like Hello Kitty, she's a woman who isn't just breaking the

glass ceiling, she's literally shooting her way through it.

MARIANA: A glock. BAYERN: Yeah.

MARIANA: Wow. You see that?

She's showing me the bullet hole.

The bullet came through this side and came out of this side.

These shootouts with law enforcement have become

all too common.

As cocaine exploded throughout the country,

so did gang violence.

Today, Rio's police response involves helicopter‐borne

snipers, with shoot‐to‐kill orders.

In 2019, the police here killed over 1,800 people.

That's five people a day.

Nearly twice the number killed by cops in the entire

United States.

Still, the traffickers I've met seem to take this

violence in stride.

MARIANA: Salvation. That depends on a person's point of view.

And tonight, I'll have the chance to ask

Hello Kitty herself.

My Red Command contacts have finally come through.

We're scheduled to meet her on her turf.

Okay, rom what we've heard, she's going to be actually

waiting for us in the inside of this favela, so we're

driving deeper and deeper.

MARIANA: So please, please, please do not put the cameras

up, he's asking.

When we arrive at the rendezvous point,

Luis receives new intel from his underworld sources.

So, not good news.

Um, apparently, we were told she was waiting for us,

but then we got here, and apparently she's gone.

And, uh, it's, uh, we're being told that there is going to be a

police operation here tomorrow.

MARIANA: They found out through an informant they have at the

police, and so when that happens and the word spreads,

they go out and they start hiding everything.

They're going to hide the guns and the drugs,

and that's what apparently has happened tonight.

And that's where, she's disappeared and no one

can find her.

Unfortunately, the trail goes cold.

Dead cold.

The police operation took place the following day and we never

re‐engaged with Hello Kitty.

Just a few weeks later, we received word that Hello Kitty

and her father were killed in a gun battle with Rio's police.

Yes, she was an unapologetic cocaine queen,

but she was also twenty‐one years old and a mother

of two children.

Cocaine has transformed Brazil's black market and its players,

but in the end, I never got to meet the female narco boss I'm

searching for.

So, I head to the source,

the world's biggest cocaine producer,

to locate a rumored narco‐queen the cops and

criminals are all trying to kill.

MARIANA: So you've been in touch with these people?

I mean, they know that we're coming?

MARIANA: The man riding shotgun is Oliver Schmieg,

a local photojournalist who once helped me gain access to the

cocaine highway, the 3,000 mile journey smugglers take to move

their product from the mountains of South America to Miami Beach.

Now, we're trying to track down a female narco named "Sonia,"

who's rumored to be the second in command of one of Colombia's

newest criminal cartels, Los Caparros.

What do you guys know about her, this woman?

MARIANA: The boss of the assassins? OLIVER: Yeah.

MARIANA: Astonishing is an understatement.

You see, for five decades, Colombia has been the world's

biggest cocaine producer.

This multi‐billion dollar black market was dominated by one man.

The king of cocaine, Pablo Escobar.

Throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s,

Escobar's Medellin cartel controlled every link in their

global supply chain, from production to distribution.

But when the kingpin was gunned down in 1993,

his cartel crumbled.

The cocaine business, however, did not.

It simply evolved.

Today, Colombia produces more powder than ever.

But the big cartels have splintered into smaller rival

gangs, which means more competition and violence.

To fight back against the new generation of narcos,

the Colombian government offers money to local farmers to burn

their crops.

MARIANA: Rumor has it Sonia murdered one of these farmers,

and then ordered her men to leave his body on display for

ten days.

It feels very much like we're entering the heart

of darkness here.

MARIANA: The man holding the phone is Ivan Vasquez,

a former Colombian special forces soldier and our security

advisor for the region.

The voice on the other end is our contact inside Sonia's gang.

MARIANA: The region we're in is called Bajo Cauca.

In 2019, it had a murder rate on par with Tijuana, Mexico,

the most violent city in the world.

Just weeks ago, eight teenage soccer players traveling through

here were taken hostage.

OLIVER: They got kidnapped by the same gang

we are supposed to meet, by Los Caparros.

Three got freed, one they found dead already.

MARIANA: So they were, wait, they were kidnapped by the same

people we are meeting?

OLIVER: Yeah.

MARIANA: And is there any guarantee that these people are

meeting us and that they're not going to kidnap us?

Do we...

OLIVER: Well, there's no guarantee.

I mean, you are under the control of a criminal gang.

There is a risk to get kidnapped.

MARIANA: Okay.

And that's when our contact calls back,

with a meeting point.

Instead of finding Sonia, we're picked up along the way by a

pair of her Sicarios, professional hitmen,

who order us to follow them.

Though 50% of Bajo Cauca's residents live in poverty today,

the Spanish conquistadors knew there was tremendous wealth to

be found here, hidden underground.

As we follow the Sicarios into this mining operation,

I assume this is where we'll find Sonia.

Instead, we discover the men are taking us on a shakedown.

MARIANA: Sonia's Sicarios want us to leave immediately,

but I want to know more about what's happening here.

MARIANA: Before I can ask more questions, my crew alerts me

that the gunmen are on the phone with Sonia, herself.

MARIANA: It seems I've overstayed my welcome.

While her gunmen lead us away from the mine.

MARIANA: Ivan gets a concerning call from his local security sources.

Over the past 24 hours, there have been multiple gun fights

between local gangs, with six people confirmed killed.

So this area right now, he was saying, is super, super hot.

It seems like every gang in Bajo Cauca wants a piece of the pie.

And they're willing to kill for it.

MARIANA: He's gonna check all the cars,

make sure that there's no one else there or any guns.

He's also getting all the guns from our security guys, um,

disarming everybody.

And no cell phones allowed in.

Once they take our cell phones, they order us to follow them.

It's time to meet their leader, "La Comandante," the commander.

You see, he just handed the money to him,

and he's the only one who's able, um, to approach her,

the woman.

And he's about to give her the money.

It's amazing though, she's the one really giving the orders here, huh?

OLIVER: Yeah.

MARIANA: In my many years of investigating narco‐traffickers,

this is the first time I've encountered a woman who wields

so much power over violent, well‐armed men.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: Okay.

Eventually, I'm permitted to approach Sonia.

MARIANA: Whoa, okay, so she's not happy apparently,

because there's not enough money.

It's not the money that she was promised.

MARIANA: Oh, apparently, there's like another group close by,

and they're getting scared.

Okay, guys, really. For real, now we have to go.

MARIANA: Sonia's bodyguards rush her to safety.

NACHO: Go.

MARIANA: While they prepare for an imminent attack.

Oh, my God, the guy's got his gun, he just, you know,

it's serious when they start freaking out.

MARIANA: My film crew and I are embedded with a gang

of cocaine traffickers and a rival cartel is closing in.

MARIANA: (bleep) Okay.

The mine where we were just now filming,

there was another rival group that came in, armed,

so that things are definitely not safe,

because this could be the next spot they target.

Hopefully this is open, yeah.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: No.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: No.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: He started hearing gunshots right

where we came from.

MARIANA: As we flee the gang's compound,

I realize I know next to nothing about their female commander,

a woman who every rival gang in Bajo Cauca seems to want dead.

Narcotrafficking is a man's world, traditionally.

Almost never do you see a woman occupy a position of power,

like Sonia.

While there have been a few confirmed gangster queens in

recent history, often exaggerated by Hollywood,

the women I typically interview are low‐level drug mules.

But maybe these changes in the black market shouldn't

be so surprising.

The fight for equality in the legal market has been happening

for generations.

I imagine something similar must be taking place

inside organized crime.

Still, how does a 21‐year‐old woman end up a cartel commander?

MARIANA: The morning after the attack,

I discover Sonia's not just alive,

she's willing to finally talk.

It turns out it was the Clan Del Golfo that led the attack.

You can film.

They're Sonia's main rival and the biggest drug traffickers in

the region with alleged links to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.

MARIANA: Sonia is young, but so is her group, Los Caparros.

They're one of the newest gangs competing for Colombia's cocaine

profits, supposedly created by former right wing paramilitaries

who abandoned politics and embraced crime.

MARIANA: Sonia tells me that like most people Bajo Cauca,

she grew up in poverty.

When she was 12, her father was murdered by a

local paramilitary gang.

Sonia went looking for revenge, but never found it.

What she found instead was love.

At 16 years old, she fell for the regional commander

of Los Caparros.

A man who had grown up poor, like her.

MARIANA: Against her mother's wishes, Sonia ran away,

got pregnant, and gave birth to the commander's children.

MARIANA: Respect.

It's something Sonia earned during her initiation,

when the cartel kidnapped a disabled man and ordered her to

kill him.

MARIANA: Despite everything I've witnessed covering black

markets, it's hard to stomach the details of Sonia's rise to power.

MARIANA: A part of me wants to view Sonia's story as an act of

empowerment, but all I see is a woman who's been transformed

from a victim of Colombia's violence

to one of its chief perpetrators.

MARIANA: Cocaine, it remains Colombia's most enduring and

profitable black market.

MARIANA: And Sonia is going to show me how she maintains

control of her gang's coca plantation.

We're essentially surrounded by coca fields and, uh,

illegal gold mines.

This is also sort of, you know, the birthplace of

narco‐trafficking.

Pablo Escobar, the Medellin cartel,

the cocaine that was produced, it was,

it all came from these hills, from this area.

In fact, reports from the United Nations Office on Drugs and

Crime suggest that 70% of all the coca planted in 2017 came

from Colombia, from areas just like this.

MARIANA: Her hitmen inform me that there are snipers hidden

throughout the hills.

Oh, wow.

It's not long after that I finally see it.

The crown jewel of Sonia's power.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: Producing cocaine, surprisingly, isn't complicated.

Coca leaves are picked by hand, then mulched together,

then mixed with cement, gasoline,

and other chemicals to produce a raw coca paste.

In the past, most of this product was sent north,

to the US.

But more and more paste is now heading south,

to the burgeoning Brazilian market I just came from.

These local farmers are paid to feed this growing global demand,

though they have little choice.

There's a saying in this region,

"Whoever does not sow, has to go."

30 years ago, Pablo Escobar controlled all the coca grown around here.

Today, Sonia helps manage some 30,000 acres.

But Los Caparros are outnumbered and out‐gunned by rivals.

They need fresh soldiers and they need them fast.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: Recruited. It means something very different in this region.

Many Caparros members are actually kidnapped.

They're not volunteers. They're victims.

MARIANA: The case of the eight teenage soccer players who

recently disappeared in Bajo Cauca shocked

millions of Colombians.

But Sonia knows what happened to the players,

because she was the one who ordered their kidnapping.

MARIANA: Despite everything she's told me,

I'm still shocked to learn that many of Sonia's narco‐soldiers

are innocent young men her gang kidnapped.

MARIANA: These horrors are all in the service of the product.

Another kilo of coke is ready for transport.

That's when Sonia's bodyguards tell her she, too, must go.

With so many rivals, they can't allow their commander to remain

in one place for long.

She's the boss.

She's the most valuable thing here.

If she gets killed, then the guys that are in charge of her

protection will probably get killed as well.

MARIANA: A part of me really wants these

ambitious women to succeed.

And why not?

For far too long, it's been mostly men profiting from the

multi‐billion dollar drug trade.

Of course despite his riches, even Pablo Escobar died in a

hail of gunfire on a rooftop in Medellin.

MARIANA: Just weeks after I left,

the Colombian military killed the leader of Los Caparros and

captured one of his chief lieutenants.

Sonia's lover and the father of her children.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: Seven of the eight kidnapped teenagers were freed.

(speaking native language)

MARIANA: And the remaining members of Los Caparros are on

the run, including Sonia, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Today, the Colombian government has declared the gang

"thoroughly dismantled."

Narcos come and go, that's part of the deal.

Live fast, die young.

But more and more, the black market often reflects trends in

the legal one.

It's like a dark mirror.

So, it's perhaps not surprising that women are pushing for

equality in the most ruthless workplace of all.

MARIANA: And they're either desperate enough or crazy enough

to do the unthinkable in their pursuit of money and power.

Progress can be a bitch.

♪ Don't take no prisoners. ♪

♪ Powerful from head to toe. ♪

♪ If you've seen us, then you already know. ♪

Captioned by Cotter Media Group.