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Amazon Settlers Dreaming of Modernization (Extra Scene from 'Cocaine And Faith In The Amazon')

In this extra scene, VICE News meets settlers of Alto Monte, who believe their sacred and remote town in the Amazon is on track to becoming a great civilization — just as their prophet Ezequiel Ataucusi promised.

Peru is now the world's main supplier of coca, the raw plant material used to manufacture cocaine. In the last five years, coca production has grown the most in the tri-border region, an area deep in the Amazon where Colombia, Brazil and Peru meet.

The tri-border region is home to a messianic sect with apocalyptic beliefs whose members dress in biblical robes. Known as "Israelites," the religious group migrated to the Peruvian Amazon in 1995 in search of a promised land that's now infested with coca plantations.

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VICE News traveled to Alto Monte de Israel, the sacred land of the Israelites, to meet them and understand how they cope with the existence of coca crops on their land, and whether they're involved in the drug trade.

In this extra scene, VICE News meets settlers of Alto Monte, who believe that their sacred and remote town in the Amazon is on track to becoming a great civilization — just as their prophet Ezequiel Ataucusi promised.

Watch "Cocaine & Faith in the Amazon"

Watch "Peru: The New King of Coke"

Inside the Peruvian Sect Accused of Growing Coca in the Amazon