A small chemical processing plant hidden in a quiet neighborhood of New Jersey has an exclusive license to import coca leaves into the US on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company and manufactures as much as $2 billion of pure cocaine every year.

The leaves are used to produce a 'decocainized' ingredient for the iconic soda and the cocaine byproduct is sold to the nation's largest opioid manufacturer, which markets the powder as a numbing agent and topical anesthetic for dentists.

The unassuming facility in Maywood has been processing coca leaves for Coca-Cola for over 100 years and is now run by a chemical manufacturer called Stepan Company.

It operates under special licenses issued to it by the DEA and is the only company in the US permitted to import coca leaves and manufacture cocaine. 

And just this year, on January 30, Stepan successfully renewed its petition for permission to continue importing the controlled substance into the US.

The DEA did not respond to a request from DailyMail.com for details as to how much coca the company imports, but in the 1980s it was 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 something in the region of two million grams of cocaine - which, according to pharmaceutical company listings online, could be worth around $2 billion.