The Black Hawk helicopter was ready for take off – its rotor blades slicing through the air in the deadening heat of the Colombian Amazon. We ducked low and crammed in alongside the Jungle Commandos – a police special operations unit armed by the Americans and originally trained by Britain's SAS, when it was founded in 1989. The commandos were heavily armed. The mission was familiar. The weather was clear. But there was tension on board, kicking in with the adrenaline. When you go after any part of the drug trade in Colombia, you have to be ready for trouble. The commandos often face resistance from criminal groups, and current and former guerrillas who have replaced the cartels of the 1970s and 80s. 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. Just ahead two other Black Hawks were leading the way. Down below us there was dense forest and patches of bright green – the tell-tale sign of coca plant cultivation. The crop now covers an area nearly twice the size of Greater London, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), published in 2024. After a quick landing in a jungle clearing, we observed the operations of drug production amidst the challenges of law enforcement amid governmental and political pressures. Major Cristhian Cedano Díaz and the commandos express the harsh reality of their mission as they burn down cocaine labs, facing an ongoing and evolving battle against drug trafficking and the social issues that underlie it.