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  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: We're on the side of a mountain, and

  • there's about thousands of marijuana plants around us.

  • -This is like two, three hectares.

  • Like 20,000, 30,000 plants.

  • And then you know that you're going to find a champion there

  • if you look long enough.

  • It's a massive field, full of pot.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: You might not know who Arjan Roskam is,

  • but you've probably smoked his weed.

  • Since 1985, Arjan has been producing some of the most

  • well-known strains of marijuana out of Amsterdam.

  • We joined up with him and his crew in Colombia to look for

  • three rare marijuana strains.

  • So after a few hours of sleep, we're headed to Cali to check

  • out the biggest weed operation in Colombia.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: OK, let's rock and roll.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: First stop, the massive grow operation of

  • local legend "El Gato," Arjan's key Colombian contact.

  • He'd be our guide throughout the trip.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: So here we've got guerrilla-style growing,

  • guys, in the mountains of the forest.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: Colombia produces the most cocaine in

  • the world, but it's also one of the most fertile places on

  • earth to grow cannabis.

  • And while the country allows for recreational amounts of

  • marijuana, growing weed on an industrial scale remains

  • highly illegal.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: If you look at the

  • plants, they're all moving.

  • You feel a little breeze going through, not too much, but

  • just enough to make them strong and make sure there's

  • no stale air around the buds.

  • This is the biggest thing in Columbia.

  • It's probably maybe the biggest in South America.

  • Paraguay also has very big ones.

  • But not like this.

  • And not this kind of quality.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: In 1992, Arjan opened his first coffee

  • shop in Amsterdam and has since crafted his marijuana

  • breeding skills into a market savvy empire known as Green

  • House Seed Company.

  • He's won 38 Cannabis Cups.

  • He's even dubbed himself the King of Cannabis.

  • -All hail the king.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: We thought maybe if we create a King of

  • Cannabis, maybe all the rappers will come.

  • Maybe famous artists will come.

  • They will spread the word for us.

  • BUSTA RHYMES: Congratulate the King of the Cannabis.

  • Salud.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: These days, he's often found in Amsterdam.

  • And when he's not there he's strain hunting, scouring the

  • entire world looking for rare, untouched marijuana strains,

  • better known as landraces.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: We are the guys who travel

  • all around the world.

  • We see where the good stuff is, and we try to bring back

  • the knowledge that we gain here.

  • We are the only guys who go really into the bush and

  • really to the danger areas.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: With authentic seeds in hand, he

  • brings them back to the lab in Amsterdam to develop new

  • varieties of marijuana.

  • His companies bring in millions of dollars a year.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: Here you see a grow room that's done with a

  • minimal amount of money, but intuitive perfection.

  • So this is the most healthy way of growing marijuana,

  • preserving nature, and, in the end, smoking the product.

  • Because it's so perfect.

  • How many plants?

  • 8,000.

  • How many kilos?

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: Every crop or every year?

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: 4,000 pounds.

  • So that's 2,000 kilos.

  • So that's 6,000 kilos, six tons a year.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: So the boys are gathering around these

  • plants to do a little shoot for their marketing

  • initiatives.

  • They have fertilizer, apparently, that they try to

  • sell to people.

  • But this is sort of businessman

  • Arjan at work again.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: The bags are in good height.

  • Our faces are good visible.

  • -Fuck yeah.

  • Fuck yeah, man.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: As marijuana becomes legal in more and more

  • countries around the world, Arjan Roskam has set himself

  • up to be the first billionaire of bud.

  • FRANCO LOJA: They are raising them already.

  • It's three weeks away from being harvested.

  • Incredible.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: Arjan's business partner and head

  • breeder is Franco Loja, a paratrooper in the Italian

  • military turned grower.

  • FRANCO LOJA: I used to be perceived as a criminal when I

  • was in Italy.

  • Now I'm a guy that has 50,000 fans on Facebook, and people

  • ask for autographs and want to take pictures with me.

  • The beauty of cannabis, the power of

  • cannabis is its variety.

  • It's the fact that there are so many flavors, so many

  • effects, medicinal and recreational.

  • It's a plant, but it's not one plant.

  • It's thousands of plants.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: Now as we look, we are in a great plantation,

  • but it's still very illegal.

  • You know what the people are doing here.

  • And they're all jeopardizing their life and prison and

  • everything.

  • -[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: The people who are running this operation

  • lost their father, their brothers.

  • So this gives you just an idea of how rough the past was.

  • And now they're marijuana growers.

  • That's the greatest thing on earth.

  • They go from the guerrilla to growing marijuana.

  • What else you want to have on this planet?

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: That's not dirt he's scooping up.

  • You're looking at dried resin, soon to be hash.

  • -[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: On this particular expedition, the

  • guys have come to Colombia to hunt for

  • three legendary landraces.

  • Limon verde, punta roja, and Colombian gold.

  • Since it was too dangerous to stay at the grow-op we would

  • start hunting for the limon verde the next morning.

  • Then we got stuck.

  • ARJAN ROSKAM: Our truck is stuck.

  • We're going to have to push it out.

  • KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: We had heard horror stories about what

  • happens in the southern jungles of Colombia at night,

  • and Gato told us that FARC guerrillas abducted a French

  • journalist last year and that this June, an American was

  • stabbed to death by bandits on the road.

  • We knew we had to get the hell out of there.

  • So we can't fucking move the truck.

  • We moved it about five meters or so, but

  • then it's stuck again.

  • We've been putting a bunch of vegetation and shit under the

  • wheels, and it's moved, but it's not going to work.

  • This is fucking tough.

  • It's muddy out here.

  • And I don't think this truck is going to move tonight.

  • -Push, push!

KRISHNA ANDAVOLU: We're on the side of a mountain, and

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