What do watermelons, submarines and sex toys all have in common? They’ve all been used to smuggle drugs.

The War on Drugs has forced cartels to become serious innovators. For every method police develop to catch them, drug traffickers will come up with new ways to get their product from producer to seller to buyer. This can lead to advanced technological innovation like narco-submarines and "trap cars". But it can also create violence, coercion and massive political corruption.

And, just occasionally, it can lead to hundreds of pounds of cocaine getting eaten by wild bears – a true story, which has now become the inspiration for a Hollywood film.

We look at the craziest and most inventive ways cartels have smuggled drugs, and how these have become more and more advanced over time.

Sponsored By @UniversalPictures #sponsored #cocainebear

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00:00 Intro
02:01 The Golden Age of Drug Smuggling
05:26 How the Modern Mexican Cartel Was Created
07:50 The So-Called ‘Trap Car’

In The War On Drugs Show, we examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe. Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.

Watch more from this series:

The Opioid Crisis Sweeping Africa
   • The Opioid Crisis Sweeping Africa | T...  

Why Mexican Cartels Use American Guns
   • Why Mexican Cartels Use American Guns...  

The Female Cartel Bosses of Latin America
   • The Female Cartel Bosses of Latin Ame...  

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