There is a chemical processing plant located in a residential area of New Jersey that has a unique license to import coca leaves into the United States on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company.
According to Mail Online, this plant produces up to $2 billion worth of pure cocaine each year. The coca leaves are utilized to create a decocainized ingredient for the popular soda, and the byproduct of cocaine is sold to the nation’s leading opioid manufacturer, which markets the powder as a numbing agent and topical anesthetic for dentists.
The facility in Maywood has been processing coca leaves for Coca-Cola for more than a century and is now run by the chemical manufacturer, Stepan Company. The company operates under special licenses issued by the DEA and is the only company in the US permitted to import coca leaves and manufacture cocaine.
Earlier this year, Stepan renewed its petition for permission to continue importing the controlled substance into the US.
The DEA did not disclose the amount of coca the company imports. However, in the 1980s, it was reported that more than 500 metric tons of leaves could enter the plant in a single year.
Five hundred tons of leaves might produce approximately two million grams of cocaine, which, according to pharmaceutical company listings online, could be worth around $2 billion.
The secretive agreement between Coca-Cola and Stepan was eventually disclosed in the late 1980s when government officials and Coca-Cola spoke on the record.
The New York Times reported that Stepan was importing between 56 and 588 metric tons of coca each year from Peru and Bolivia.
Records acquired by Ricardo Cortés, an illustrator and author of the book A Secret History of Coffee, Coca, and Cola, reveal that between 45 and 104 tons of leaves were exported to Maywood each year from 2007 to 2010.
The coca leaf is the primary source of cocaine and is used to illegally manufacture the drug in parts of South America, including Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia. Importing coca leaves to the US has been illegal since 1921.
Nevertheless, The Coca-Cola Company, currently valued at around $265 billion, has imported the “controlled substance” freely for over a century. Despite efforts by governments to crack down on the notorious coca plant, the company has miraculously avoided restriction.
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