Paraíso becomes a drug trafficking hub
In 1980, Paraíso was transformed from a rural hamlet into a bustling and affluent drug trafficking center, attracting a national and international population, especially Colombian, following the emergence of coca cultivation in 1978.
In 1980, Paraíso experienced an unexpected burst of drug trafficking boom that transformed a purely rural spot into a bustling, affluent town. Coca cultivation had appeared in 1978, but only two years later it became a drug trafficking center. The transformation attracted people not only from all parts of the country but from Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil, with the bulk of the foreign colony being Colombians. In just a few years, Paraíso became an important center of the drug trade in the Upper Huallaga.