Close to the border with Brazil, large illegal cannabis plantations thrive on a network of corruption. Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay - Cowboy hats and flasks adorned with imitation jaguar and snakeskin prints dot the market of the Paraguayan border town of Pedro Juan Caballero.
In June , a ceasefire between the factions came to an end when lead gangster Jorge Rafaat, allied with the CV and known as the "king of the frontier" was executed in his armoured Hummer. His death has been attributed to the PCC. Pedro Juan Caballero is just the start of a journey into a more tranquil, hidden - but no less illegal - world just a few kilometres from the border with Brazil. It is here - for the most part, untroubled by police or other authorities - that gigantic plantations exist to grow the vast majority of the cannabis smoked by millions of Brazilians.
Three million Brazilians regularly use the drug, according to the Second National Survey on Alcohol and Drugs at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, and in the first six months of , Brazil's Federal Police seized tonnes of the drug, most of it originating from Paraguay.
Unlike Colombia and Uruguay , planting cannabis is illegal in both Brazil and Paraguay. The Paraguayan plantations are believed to cover 7, hectares. Those working on land reveal a widespread system of impunity, guaranteed by a network of corrupt police officers and other officials. Adriano spends most of the year in the fields with the workers who plant and pick cannabis, mediating any problems between them and the field boss.
While he is the "owner" of two plantations, he is not the legitimate owner of the farms, which are usually appropriated public land - including forests and protected national parks - or rented from the owner of a much larger estate.
