Outsized risks face Peru's expendable cocaine couriers

He slides two T-shirts, shorts, canned tuna, toasted corn and boiled potatoes into the rucksack atop 11 pounds of semi-refined cocaine. In a side pocket, a .38-caliber Chinese pistol.

Mardonio Borda is a 19-year-old native Quechua with broken Spanish and a sixth-grade education. But he has at least $125,000 worth of drugs on his back that he will carry out of Peru's main coca-growing valley. He is among untold hundreds of cocaine backpackers who make the difficult and dangerous trek up Andean mountain paths first carved by their pre-Incan ancestors.

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 14, 2015 photo, sandbags used by members of self-defense groups to control the exit and entrance of their town, sit piled on the periphery of a coca field in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

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In this country that overtook Colombia in 2012 as the world's No. 1 cocaine-producing nation, Borda regularly hikes within a few hours of the Machu Picchu tourist mecca, bound for Cuzco with drugs. Sixty percent of Peru's cocaine comes from the remote Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley, and the backpackers trek for three to five days to deliver cocaine to traffickers who move the drugs on for export. But it is not the lung-searing ascents to high altitudes that worry the young men. It is the armed gangs, crooked police, and rival backpacker groups who regularly rob cocaine's beasts of burden on journeys that can extend 100 miles (160 kilometers) or more.

"It's win or lose," said Borda, "like casino gambling."

Hauling cocaine out of the valley is about the only way to earn decent cash in this economically depressed region where a farmhand earns less than $10 a day. Beyond extinguishing young lives, the practice has packed Peru's highland prisons with backpackers while their bosses evade incarceration.

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Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, Rufina Galvez chews coca leaves outside her house in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Adored by her son Yuri, he would ferry her around Ayacucho on his blue motorcycle, buy her groceries, and make sure she always had cell phone minutes. A university student, Yuri had gotten his fatherís permission to haul coca to pay for his agronomy studies. In March 2013, he was found face-up on a mountain trail, with bullet wounds to his head, stomach and arm. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

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It is a big business. Roughly one third of the 305 metric tons of cocaine that the U.S. government estimates Peru produces each year travels by foot.

A hardy lot, cocaine backpackers are mostly native Quechua speakers like Borda and hail from the isolated peasant communities that suffered the worst atrocities of Peru's 1980-2000 dirty war with Shining Path rebels. Not a few backpackers are orphans, and some are Ashaninka, members of Peru's largest Amazon indigenous group.

The region's poverty rate is triple the national average, but the backpackers earn from $150 to $400 per trip, depending on the load. The 11 pounds of coca paste that Borda shoulders are worth about $3,500 in Peru — and 16 times as much wholesale in the United States. As powdered cocaine sold by the gram in New York City, it would fetch up to $250,000.

"The great majority haven't finished high school," said Laura Barrenechea, a sociologist whose non-governmental group CEDRO last year interviewed 33 backpackers inside the maximum-security Yanamilla prison in Ayacucho, a regional capital in Peru's central highlands where many backpackers' journeys end.

"They are not really conscious that they are the first link in the drug-trafficking chain."

Not a single fully paved road rises out of the Apurimac river valley, which stretches northward for 250 miles (400 kilometers), separating the Andes ridge from the Amazon basin.

Police say more and more cocaine is being processed to powder rather than left as coca paste, which includes residues of hydrocarbons, typically gasoline, used in the initial processing. While authorities say most of the drugs are now flown out, backpacking is dependable in the rainy season, cheaper than hiring a pilot and plane — and key to evading police checkpoints.

Backpackers, or "mochileros," ("mochila" is Spanish for backpack), have been hauling cocaine this way for nearly two decades.

After reaching highland cities on foot, cocaine travels mostly via highway either to Pacific ports or Bolivia's nearby border.

For more, read the AP news story. 

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Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 16, 2015 photo, a young man dances under a heavy rain during a concert by huayno singer Ely Corazon, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. The average cocaine backpacker, or mochilero, is typically recruited by relatives and friends - often at festivities where liquor flows. They tend not to tell their parents, who nearly always disapprove. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, Rufina Galvez reads coca leaves outside her house in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Her son Yuri, a cocaine backpacker, always checked in by phone. So when he didnít call after a March 2013 smuggling trip, his mother turned to reading coca leaves to try to divine his fate, tossing them on her skirt as is customary. ìThe leaves fell spine-up, a bad sign,î she said. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, huayno singer Nanda la Dulce performs during a multi-village soccer tournament, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru, located in the remote Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley, where 60 percent of Peruís cocaine originates there. Huayno traditional Andean folk music. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 13, 2015 photo, a seedling grows next to a barefooted Donato Mosco, as he weeds a coca field, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Peru overtook Colombia in 2012 as the worldís No. 1 cocaine-producing nation. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 14, 2015 photo, sandbags used by members of self-defense groups to control the exit and entrance of their town, sit piled on the periphery of a coca field in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 16, 2015 photo, Janet Curo, 9, takes a break from harvesting coca leaves with her mother, in La Mar, province of Peruís Ayacucho state. Janet skipped school to help her mother in the coca fields. They are in the remote Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley, where 60 percent of Peruís cocaine originates. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, young men compete in a multi-village soccer tournament, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. A hardy lot, cocaine backpackers are mostly native Quechua speakers and hail from the isolated communities that suffered the worst atrocities of Peruís 1980-2000 dirty war with Shining Path rebels. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 16, 2015 photo, Jhorlis Huallpa, 17, carries a bagful of tarps, to be used for drying coca leaves, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Hauling cocaine out of the valley is about the only way to earn decent cash in this economically depressed region where a farmhand earns less than $10 a day. Beyond extinguishing young lives, the practice has packed Peruís highland prisons with backpackers while their bosses evade incarceration. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 13, 2015 photo, Donato fries an egg over an open fire to add to his breakfast of rice and plantain, before starting his work day of weeding coca fields, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Roughly one third of the 305 metric tons of cocaine that the U.S. government estimates Peru produces each year travels by foot by way of cocaine backpackers or mochileros, as they are known locally. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, Julio and Rufina Galvez pose for a picture holding a portrait of their late son Yuri, outside their home, in La Mar province of Ayacucho, Peru. The 25-year-old university student had gotten his fatherís permission to haul coca in a backpack to pay for his agronomy studies, his mother said. Yuri was found face-up on a mountain trail, with bullet wounds to his head, stomach and arm, in a March 2013 cocaine smuggling trip. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 13, 2015 photo, coca farmer Alfredo Mosco, 44, who had polished off a bottle of cane liquor by midday, sleeps in his field of coca seedlings, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Mosco is a small coca farmer who provides work for young villagers. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, a slaughtered chicken sits on a pan lid, to be used in a soup for a special dinner marking the second anniversary of the death of Yuri Galvez, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Galvez, 25, was killed in March 2013 during a cocaine smuggling trip. Deaths of cocaine backpackers often go unreported. Bodies lack identification papers, and villagers quietly bury them. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 14, 2015 photo, Mardonio Borda,19, poses for a picture during an interview, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. A native Quechua with broken Spanish and a sixth-grade education, Borda is among untold hundreds of cocaine backpackers who make the difficult and dangerous trek up Andean mountain paths first carved by their pre-Incan ancestors. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, Fortunato Farfan laughs while posing for a photo in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Fortunato is wearing a T-shirt with a phrase that reads in Spanish; "No to coca eradication in the VRAEM." VRAEM is the acronym for Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers, where sixty percent of Peruís cocaine originates. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, Rufina Galvez blows into a cane reed to stoke a fire while preparing a special chicken broth to mark the second anniversary of her son's death, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. He adored her, ferrying her around Ayacucho on his blue motorcycle, buying her groceries, making sure she always had cell phone minutes, she said. Her son, a university student, had gotten his fatherís permission to haul coca to pay for his agronomy studies. In March 2013, her son was found face-up on a mountain trail, with bullet wounds to his head, stomach and arm. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 13, 2015 photo, Donato, from left, Delfin, and Jony, eat breakfast before starting their work day of weeding coca fields, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Peruís cocaine trade is highly decentralized, run by scores of extended families who sell to representatives of foreign cartels. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 14, 2015 photo, a coca field is seen from the side of a road in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru, located in the remote Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley, where 60 percent of Peruís cocaine originates. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 13, 2015 photo, Yohan, 4, from left, Cristian, 7, and Angelo, 6, playfully toss coca leaves into the air, singing: "I have a lot of money, look at all the money I have," in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Hauling cocaine out of the remote valley is about the only way to earn decent cash in this region where a farmhand earns less than $10 a day. Beyond extinguishing young lives, the practice has packed Peruís highland prisons with cocaine backpackers while their bosses evade incarceration. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

This March 16, 2015 photo, a rural road is seen in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. While authorities say most of the drugs in the region are now flown out, backpacking is dependable in the rainy season, cheaper than hiring a pilot and plane - and key to evading police checkpoints. Backpackers, or ìmochileros,î (ìmochilaî is Spanish for backpack), have been hauling cocaine this way for nearly two decades. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Peru Cocaine Backpackers

In this March 15, 2015 photo, Rufina Galvez plucks a chicken in preparation for a special dinner to mark the second anniversary of her son's death, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Yuri, a cocaine backpacker, always checked in by phone she said. So when he didnít call after a March 2013 smuggling trip, his mother turned to reading coca leaves to try to divine his fate, tossing them on her skirt as is customary. ìThe leaves fell spine-up, a bad sign,î she said. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

APTOPIX Peru Cocaine Backpackers

This March 15, 2015 photo shows steaming bowls of chicken soup on a table set for a special meal marking the second death anniversary of cocaine backpacker Yuri Galvez, in La Mar, province of Ayacucho, Peru. Galvez, 25, was found dead two years earlier after a smuggling trip with other backpackers. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

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Text from the AP news story, Outsized risks face Peru's expendable cocaine couriers.

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