Drugs trade / drug trafficking Books

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGerman writer Norman Ohler's astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the second world war .. Blitzed looks set to reframe the way certain aspects of the Third Reich will be viewed in the future -- Rachel Cooke * Guardian *A huge contribution... remarkable -- Antony Beevor * BBC RADIO 4 *Blitzed is making me rethink everything I've ever seen and read about WWII. It emotionally and technically makes sense of previously unexplainable aspects of that war. It makes me want to revisit other books on it with the hindsight of knowing these newly exposed truths. It was terrific! -- Douglas CouplandThe picture he paints is both a powerful and an extreme one... gripping reading -- Anna Katharina Schaffner * Times Literary Supplement *Remarkable... energetic... retells the history of the war through the prism of the pill... it has an uncanny ability to disturb -- Roger Boyes * The Times *Very good and extremely interesting - a serious piece of scholarship very well-researched -- Ian Kershaw author of Hitler and To Hell and BackThe most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life -- Dan SnowNorman Ohler has succeeded in a remarkable scoop, by studying in detail the notebooks of Hitler's personal doctor and demonstrating that Hitler was a far worse junkie than we had ever imagined. He has also unearthed the way that the German army did not march on its stomach, but on methamphetamine. The supposedly clean-living Nazis, who accused the Jews of corrupting German youth, were the real pushers. The book, written with delightful irony, is an eye-opener. -- Antony Beevor * Guardian *This book transforms the overall picture * Hans Mommsen *Sensational * Daily Mail *Bursting with interesting facts * Vice *Norman Ohler has written an illuminating account of the gobsmacking extent to which military strategy in the Third Reich relied on drugs. ... What you'll learn: Never trust a coked-up Nazi * ShortList *A fascinating, most extraordinary revelation * BBC World News *The Nazis were all on drugs! So far, so sensationalist but German writer Norman Ohler's absorbing new non-fiction book, Blitzed, makes the convincing argument that the Nazis' use of chemical stimulants... played a crucial role in the successes, and failures, of the Third Reich * Esquire *An audacious, compelling read * Stern *Enthralling * Mitteldeutsche Zeitung *A revelatory work that considers Hitler's career in a new light. 'Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich' is that rare sort of book whose remarkable insight focuses on a subject that's been overlooked, even disregarded by historians * The San Francisco Chronicle *Blitzed is a fascinating read that provides a new facet to our understanding of the Third Reich * Buzzfeed *It's as breezy and darkly humorous as its title. But don't be fooled by the gallows humor of chapter names like 'Sieg High' and 'High Hitler': This is a serious and original work of scholarship that dropped jaws around Europe when it was published there last year * Mashable *A juicier story would be hard to find -- The WeekDelightfully nuts, in a 'Gravity's Rainbow' kind of way. -- The New YorkerTransforming meticulous research into compelling prose, Ohler delves into the little-known history of drug use in Nazi Germany * Entertainment Weekly *[A] fascinating, engrossing, often dark history of drug use in the Third Reich * The Washington Post *This heavily researched nonfiction book by a German journalist reports that the drug was widely taken by soldiers, all the way up the ranks to Hitler himself, who received injections of a drug cocktail that also included an opioid * Newsday *

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Book Synopsis“Gato’s head snapped back… We could make out the shots of several 9mms, a couple of 38s and one or two 45s. I hurled myself through the doorway and into the room. I didn’t look back.”Caught in an Ecuador hotel room with 8kg of cocaine, Pieter Tritton was no mule or dupe. He had planned and organised everything. The consequence: a 12-year sentence inside one of the world’s deadliest prison systems, where gun fights, executions and riots are a part of everyday life. As a Brit banged up abroad, Pieter had to learn how to survive – and fast – because one wrong move would mean death.This is the insider account of what it’s like to live in a place worse than hell and come out a changed man on the other side.

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Book SynopsisSan Pedro is Bolivia's most notorious prison. Small-time drug smuggler Thomas McFadden found himself on the inside. Marching Powder is the story of how he navigated this dark world of gangs, drugs and corruption to come out on top.Thomas found himself in a bizarre world, the prison reflecting all that is wrong with South American society. Prisoners have to pay an entrance fee and buy their own cells (the alternative is to sleep outside and die of exposure), prisoners' wives and children often live inside too, high quality cocaine is manufactured and sold from the prison.Thomas ended up making a living by giving backpackers tours of the prison – he became a fixture on the backpacking circuit and was named in the Lonely Planet guide to Bolivia. When he was told that for a bribe of $5000 his sentence could be overturned, it was the many backpackers who'd passed through who sent him the money. Written by lawyer Rusty Young, Marching Powder – sometimes shocking, sometimes funny – is a riveting story of survival.Trade ReviewAll the staples of the prison memoir are here: sadistic guards, an attempted break-out, the terrors of solitary confinement, the joys of freedom . . . The result is a truly gripping piece of testimony. * Sunday Telegraph *Astonishing real-life story of a Brit drug smuggler banged up in Bolivia's most notorious jail. * FHM *This exotic, cautionary yarn opens the abyss beneath our wealthy world. * Uncut *

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE INSPIRATION FOR THE FEATURE FILM THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY 'Screamingly addictive' STEPHEN FRY 'Superb ... Thrilling story-telling' NAOMI KLEIN 'A powerful contribution to an urgent debate' GUARDIAN What if everything we’ve been told about addiction is wrong? One of Johann Hari’s earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of his relatives and not being able to. As he grew older, he realised there was addiction in his family. Confused, he set out on a three-year, thirty-thousand mile journey to discover what really causes addiction – and how to solve it. Told through a series of gripping human stories, this book was the basis of a TED talk and animation that have been viewed more than twenty million times. It has transformed the global debate about addiction.Trade ReviewScreamingly addictive. The story it tells, jaw-droppingly horrific, hilarious and incredible, is one everyone should know -- Stephen FryIntoxicatingly thrilling -- Russell BrandSuperb journalism and thrilling story-telling -- Naomi KleinA wonderful book ... I hope everyone will read it -- Sam HarrisAn absolutely stunning book. It will blow your mind, and blow you away -- Elton JohnWonderful. I couldn't put it down * Noam Chomsky *One of the world's most important and most enlightening thinkers and social critics -- Glenn Greenwald, winner of the Pulitzer PrizeBreathtaking … A powerful contribution to an urgent debate * Guardian *Incredibly powerful -- Caroline LucasA testament to Hari's skill as a writer * New York Times *Incredibly entertaining. It’s enormously emotionally affecting … It really is an extraordinary book -- Vanessa Feltz * BBC London *Gripping * Financial Times *Amazing and bracing and smart. It’s really revolutionary -- Dan Savage

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Book Synopsis21ST ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IRVINE WELSHHe was Britain's most wanted man. He spent seven years in America's toughest penitentiary. You'll like him.During the mid 1980s Howard Marks had forty three aliases, eighty nine phone lines and owned twenty five companies throughout the world. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty tons of marijuana, and had contact with organisations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA and the Mafia. Following a worldwide operation by the Drug Enforcement Agency, he was arrested and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison at the Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana. He was released in April 1995 after serving seven years of his sentence. Told with humour, charm and candour, Mr Nice is his own extraordinary story.'The story of a remarkable life, lived by the very brilliant and exceptionally wonderful Mr Nice'Irvine Welsh'Frequently hilarious, occasionally sad, and often surreal'GQ'A man who makes Peter Pan look like a geriatric'Loaded'A folk legend'Daily MailTrade ReviewFrequently hilarious, occasionally sad, and often surreal * GQ *A folk legend... Howard Marks has huge charisma. He sounds like Richard Burton and looks like a Rolling Stone * Daily Mail *A man who makes Peter Pan look like a geriatric with sleeping sickness * Loaded *Racy...with plenty of globe trotting colour * Independent *

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Book SynopsisJoin the deadly journey of cocaine, from farmer to kingpin.Meet Maria. Maria doesn’t see herself as a criminal. She’s just a farmhand picking the crops that never lose money: coca.This is Cachote. He prays to the Virgin of the Assassins that his bullets find their target. If he misses, he’ll have to answer to the cartel who pay him to take out their enemies.Pedro works the coca labs. But this laboratory is hidden deep in the jungle, and he turns coca leaves in to coca paste, a step just short of cocaine.And finally, here is Alex. Alex is a drug-lord and decides where the drug goes next: into Europe or the US. And he wields the power of life and death over everyone around him.In Kilo, Toby Muse takes us deeper into the drug trade than ever before, following a kilo of cocaine as it travels from its origins to the street. On the ground in the drug war for over a decade, earning the trust of those involved on all sides, Toby Muse takes us with him through the endless blood-soaked horror and economic logic at every level of the journey of the world’s most alluring and dangerous drug. We come to meet and ultimately understand the tainted personal psychology and motivations of each player in this dark El Dorado. But there are no winners here. Anyone who tries to hold the power of the ‘white goddess’ cocaine is ultimately undone, violently stripped of their humanity, their souls and their lives in this endless, pointless dance of death.Trade ReviewKilo is one of the best books I've read on the cocaine trade... Forget all the TV stuff, this is the real deal * Max Daly, Vice *Poetic but also brilliant journalism. I loved it. One of the best books on drugs ever written * Mark Townsend, Observer *Absolutely hair-raising * Sam Leith *Compelling and unforgettable. With Kilo, cocaine now has its own Dispatches. - The New Yorker * The New Yorker *In Kilo, Toby Muse teleports the reader into the mad, bloody, tragic world of Colombian cocaine trafficking. You can feel the beats at the discos packed with drug lords and beauty queens; smell the sweat of laborers toiling in the coca fields for a pittance; hear the dog of the gun slinger barking in the barrio. In doing so, he pens a love letter to one of the most beautiful and bloodiest countries on earth * Ioan Grillo, author of El Narco and Blood Gun Money *

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Narcopolis is a rich and hallucinatory novel set around a Bombay opium den, as the city transforms itself over three decades.In Old Bombay, they say you introduce only your worst enemy to opium. But in Rashid''s opium room on Shuklaji Street, the air is thick with voices and ghosts. A young woman holds a long-stemmed pipe over a flame, her hair falling across her eyes. Men sprawl and mutter in the gloom. And now there is an underworld whisper of a new terror: the Pathar Maar, the stone killer, whose victims are the nameless, invisible poor. In broken Bombay, there are too many to count. Stretching across three decades, with an interlude in Mao''s China, Narcopolis portrays a city in collision with itself. With a cast of pimps, pushers, poets, gangsters and eunuchs, it is a journey into a sprawling underworld written in electric and utterly original prose.

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Book SynopsisThe No.1 BestsellerThe definitive account of the rise of the Kinahan gang and the deadly feud that shocked a nation and brought the gang to the edge of destruction.__________February 2016. A daring gun attack in the Regency Hotel brings Dubliner Christy Kinahan and his international criminal cartel to a horrified public''s attention. Kinahan''s son Daniel, the target of the attack, escapes. A trusted henchman dies at the scene. And the deadly rivalry between the Kinahans and the family and associates of the veteran Dublin gangster Gerry Hutch becomes all-out war. It results in a never-before-seen level of international cooperation - including Irish, UK and US police forces - to topple the Kinahan gang.The Cartel offers a unique behind-the-scenes account of how the Kinahan organised crime organisation got so big, and why a local feud sowed the seeds for the gang''s destruction. __________''It''s incisive, it''s intriguing, it''s fascinating'' Ryan Tubridy''Fascinating!'' Keith Ward, FM104Trade ReviewThe No 1 bestselling story of the rise of Ireland's first international crime cartel - the Kinahan gang - and the bloody feud that may be its undoing. * From the Publisher's Description *Incisive, intriguing, fascinating -- Ryan Tubridy * RTÉ *Fascinating! -- Keith Ward * FM104 *

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Book SynopsisGabriel García Márquez''s News of a Kidnapping is a powerful retelling of actual events from a turbulent period of Colombian history. ''She looked over her shoulder before getting into the car to be sure no one was following her''Pablo Escobar: billionaire drugs baron, ruthless manipulator brutal killer and jefe of the infamous Madellín cartel. A man whose importance in the international drug trade and renown for his charitable work among the poor brought him influence and power in his home country of Colombia, and the unwanted attention of the American courts.Terrified of the new Colombian President''s determination to extradite him to America, Escobar found the best bargaining tools he could find: hostages.In the winter of 1990, ten relatives of Colombian politicians, mostly women, were abducted and held hostage as Escobar attempted to strong-arm the government into blocking his extradition. Two died, the rest survived, and from their Trade ReviewMarquez uses his novelist's instinct for emotional drama to give the reader a wonderfully immediate sense of his subjects' ordeal: their spiraling hopes and fears, their fantasies of escape, their desperation and despair. * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisThe best crime book since Wiseguy' Rich CohenA real-life Scarface, Jon was born into the Gambino Mafia family and witnessed his first murder aged seven. He joined a US Army assassination squad in Vietnam to escape a teen criminal charge, then fled New York to reinvent himself in Miami as the number one supplier of cocaine in the US. With a crazed bodyguard always at his side, and a fortress protected by mortars, tear-gas cannons, and a gold-fanged attack dog, Roberts was brutally effective at what he did. With a cast that includes everyone from Jimi Hendrix and OJ Simpson to the CIA and General Noriega, American Desperado is a hedonistic, adrenaline-soaked joyride through the world of Escobar and the cartels, told by one of most successful criminals of all time.Trade ReviewAn American criminal mastermind -- Ed Caesar * Sunday Times *A spellbinding narrative of drugs, death and debauchery as told by one of America's most notorious criminals... A savage, unrelenting tale * Kirkus Reviews *A tour de force. The best crime book since Wiseguy. Puts you in the middle of a world where it's wonderful to be a tourist, terrible to be a resident. I am filled with nothing but admiration and envy for Evan Wright -- Rich Cohen, author of THE FISH THAT ATE THE WHALEImagine if Mister Kurtz from Heart of Darkness sat down with Dick Cavett for a little chat about the nature of good and evil, empathy, fatherhood, violence, drugs, power, self-knowledge, women, family, the hero versus the anti-hero, freedom, imprisonment...Try as you might, you can't really put this book down -- Doug Stanton, author of HORSE SOLDIERS and IN HARM’S WAYSeldom have I read an account of criminal enterprise that took me so deeply into the blackness of a man’s soul – a scary read, pounding and relentless and irresistible -- Bruce Porter, author of BLOW

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Book Synopsis The explosive memoir of legendary DEA agents and the subject of the hit Netflix series Narcos, Steve Murphy and Javier F. Peña For the first time, legendary DEA operatives Steve Murphy and Javier F. Pena tell the true story of how they took down Pablo Escobar. Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar''s brutal Medellin Cartel was responsible for trafficking tonnes of cocaines to North America and Europe in the 1980s and ''90s. Colombia became a war zone as his sicarios mercilessly murdered thousands of people - competitors, police and civilians - to ensure he remained Colombia''s reigning kingpin. With billions in personal income, Escobar bought off politicians and lawmen and became a hero to poorer communities by building houses and sports centres. He was untouchable. But when Escobar became one of America''s most wanted, agents Steve Murphy and Javier F Pena were tasked with ending his reign of terror. For eighteen months, Steve and JaTrade ReviewManhunters is a gripping story about two true patriots who were the difference makers in the final hunt for Pablo Escobar. They are heroes to a world that was otherwise held captive by the evil of the planet's first narco-terrorist. Their bravery is unparalleled, and we owe them a great deal of gratitude for their selfless sacrifices. It is an honor to know them and their story. * Robert Mazur, New York Times bestselling author of The Infiltrator *A fast-paced tale by two agents for the DEA who had the inside track on bringing down the most wanted man in recent U.S history. * Bruce Porter, New York Times bestselling author of Blow and Snatched *Steve Murphy and Javier Pena recount their involvement in the pursuit and ultimate victory over a savvy and ruthless killer who declared an uncivil war against his own country. Never failing to credit Colombian heroism in this gripping struggle, Murphy and Pena offer fresh details of the chase for Pablo Escobar that resulted in his defeat and reclamation of the country from the deadly forces of narco-terrorism. A must-read for any fan of Narcos! * Chris Brancato, Executive Producer, "Narcos" *Riveting. A must-read for anyone interested in one of the major campaigns on the war on drugs. * Publishers Weekly *A thriller-esque account...keep[s] the pages turning. * Kirkus Reviews *A gripping insider account of the hunt for Pablo Escobar. Brilliant, bold, and no holds barred, this is an impeccable true crime story, told by the two brave men who risked everything to bring down the world's first narco-terrorist. A five-star read! * Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Spymaster *Steve Murphy and Javier Pena are the real deal; true heroes of the drug war. Manhunters outlines the most important operation in the history of DEA; the killing of the most brutal and notorious drug lord in the world, Pablo Escobar. They give an incredible account of that day in Medellin, Colombia, when Pablo was killed by Colombian police that were supported, advised, and trained by these two American warriors who were on the scene when it all happened. This book is a great read and a critical account of DEA's finest hour * LTG (Ret.) William G. Boykin, Former Commander of U.S. Army Special Forces and Founding Member of Delta Force *Manhunters grabs you from the first page and gives you a front-row seat into the harrowing inter-agency and international hunt for the brutal narcotrafficker Pablo Escobar. Two unlikely heroes recount their stories in a way that is both compelling and captivating. * US Congresswoman Mary Bono *A compelling read about the adventures of two true American law enforcement heroes who ultimately took on the world's first narco-terrorist, the world's most wanted criminal, the world's largest cocaine baron, Pablo Escobar, and won! They include accounts of other investigations, personal challenges, and the sacrifices made not only by them but their families as well. * Barbara Comstock, former US congresswoman *Manhunters is a riveting account of two brave DEA Agents who put their lives, along with their families lives, on the line to fight the war on drugs in the US and Colombia. A must read on the take down of Pablo Escobar and the part they played in the investigation * Joe Pistone, a.k.a. Donnie Brasco *Steve and Javier's experience on the front lines of the war on drugs over the last thirty years made them an invaluable source of information for us. Their contacts, both foreign and domestic, allowed us to put together a narrative of one of the most complex, poorly reported, and misunderstood chapters in our recent past. * Eric Newman, Executive Producer, "Narcos" *

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Book SynopsisAn astonishing read -- full of corruption, greed, strong drink and stronger language -- that reveals the rotten heart of the global economy - Oliver Bullough, author of MoneylandCrackles along ... they deserve credit for exposing the dark underbelly of the jewellery industry and giving us another glimpse into the real cost of the global obsession with gold - Spectator__________All that glitters is not gold.Gold is the new cocaine - and it's just as lucrative, dangerous, and destructive.__________Dirty Gold is a searing expose on the booming gold mining industry and destruction on the land and people of Latin America. It looks closely at a small US firm in Miami that helped transform the city into the nation's No.1 importer of gold into the United States.The book follows the meteoric rise and fall of a group of drug traders known as 'the three amigos' who laundered narco money through gold illegally brought into the US and raked in millions before they were caught. Whilst they were making their millions, the humanitarian situation in Colombia, Peru, and many other countries deteriorated dramatically.

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Book SynopsisTHE RIVETING TRUE STORY OF HOW THE FBI BROUGHT DOWN THE FEARSOME MIGUEL TREVIÑO, LEADER OF LOS ZETAS, MEXICO'S MOST VIOLENT DRUG CARTEL.Drugs, money, cartels: this is what FBI rookie Scott Lawson expected when he was sent to the border town of Laredo, but instead he's deskbound writing intelligence reports about the drug war. Then, one day, Lawson is asked to check out an anonymous tip: a horse was sold at an Oklahoma auction house for a record-topping price, and the buyer was Miguel Treviño, one of the leaders of the Zetas, Mexico's most brutal drug cartel. The source suggested that Treviño was laundering money through American quarter horse racing. If this was true, it offered a rookie like Lawson the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the cartel. Lawson teams up with a more experienced agent, Alma Perez, and, taking on impossible odds, sets out to take down one of the world's most fearsome drug lords. In Bloodlines, Emmy and National Magazine Award-winning journalist Melissa del Bosque follows Lawson and Perez's harrowing attempt to dismantle a cartel leader's American racing dynasty built on extortion and blood money. Throwing back the curtain on the inner workings of cartel kingpins and law enforcement agencies, del Bosque turns more than three years of research and her decades of reporting on Mexico and the border into a gripping narrative about greed and corruption. Bloodlines offers us an unprecedented look at the inner workings of the Zetas and US federal agencies, and opens a new vista onto the changing nature of the drug war and its global expansion.

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Book SynopsisAward-winning journalist - and author of Hello, Shadowlands - Patrick Winn reveals the inside story of a forbidden republic - the narco-state of the Wa. The jagged mountains dividing China and Burma belong to the Wa, an indigenous group who have outwitted the CIA to create the world's mightiest narco-state, controlling more territory than Israel and with more troops than Sweden. Are they crime lords? Or visionaries?Wa State has become a real nation with its own highways, anthems, schools and flags. Its leaders promise freedom, using profits from trafficking heroin and meth to attain what China's other frontier peoples, Tibetans and Uyghurs, can only dream of: a state of their own. Patrick Winn embarks on a risky journey of discovery, chasing clues about the forbidden republic from Thailand to Burma to the secretive Wa State itself.

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Book SynopsisFrank Lucas was born in 1930 in La Grange, North Carolina and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. Lucas is a former heroin dealer and organized crime boss who was based in Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was particularly known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in Southeast Asia. He is the subject of the 2007 film American Gangster. Lucas has been jailed twice, and was most recently released in 1991.Trade ReviewA gripping, unrepentant restimony of a controversial figure. * Shortlist *Lucas spins a yarn that gives a new view of Black history that's good enough to be paired with an outdoor porch, a few lazy hours and a cold beer on a warm Saturday night. * Ebony Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThe product of five years of investigative reporting, the subject of intense national controversy, and the source of death threats that forced the National Human Rights Commission to assign two full-time bodyguards to Anabel Hernández, The Lords of el Narco has been a publishing and political sensation in Mexico.The definitive history and anatomy of the drug cartels and the "war on drugs" that has cost more than 50,000 lives in just five years, the book explains in riveting detail how Mexico became a base for the mega-cartels of Latin America and one of the most violent places on the planet. Hernández reveals the complicity of Mexico's government and business elite. At every turn, she names names-not just the narcos and their immediate accomplices, but also the politicians, policemen, functionaries, judges and entrepreneurs who have collaborated with them.Hernández became a journalist after her father was kidnapped and killed and the police refused to investigate without a bribe. She gained national prominence in 2001 with her exposure of pharaonic spending on housekeeping at the presidential palace. All her previous books have also focused on corruption at the summit of power, under presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón.Trade ReviewNarcoland describes a disastrous 'war on drugs' that has led to more than 80,000 deaths in half a dozen years. This is a book that exposes how everything in Mexico is implicated in the 'narco system.' * Roberto Saviano *Anabel Hernández, journalist and author, accuses the Mexican state of complicity with the cartels, and says the 'war on drugs' is a sham. She's had headless animals left at her door and her family have been threatened by gunmen.... Narcoland became, and remains, a bestseller: more than 100,000 copies sold in Mexico. The success is impossible to overstate, a staggering figure for a non-fiction book in a country with indices of income and literacy incomparable to the American-European book-buying market. -- Ed Vulliamy * Observer *The most remarkable feature of Anabel Hernández's brave and invaluable account of Mexico's blood-drenched drug wars is that she survived long enough to write it... We would all be poorer without Hernández's determination to account for a civil conflict that has cost at least 60,000 lives. There could be no greater shame for Mexico should such a fearless and dedicated reporter come to any harm. * Sunday Times *Narcoland, with its explosive descriptions of decades of corruption permeating the upper echelons of government, leaves an extremely bad taste in the reader's mouth about the state of Mexico's perennially corrupt institutions - and begs the question: how much has changed? For Narcoland, Anabel Hernandez spent five years combing police, court and US papers, securing access to informers and sources and pursuing often fruitless requests for official files. The result is a searing indictment of a war on drugs she believes was a sham from the start. -- Jude Webber * Financial Times *The stark truth of a sham 'war'... A product of five years' investigative reporting, Hernández's meticulously researched explanation of the links between the Sinaloa cartel, the world's biggest criminal organisation, and Mexico's leadership makes for jaw-dropping reading. * Independent *In this brave work, the author argues that since the presidency of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (1964-1970), all of Mexico's rulers have maintained close relations with groups that import, export, and sell illegal drugs. * La Jornada *Indispensable reading for anyone who wants to understand the origins of the violence ... An extraordinary book for making the necessary journey to our heart of darkness. * Letras Libres *

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Book SynopsisAward-winning journalist - and author of Hello, Shadowlands - Patrick Winn reveals the inside story of a forbidden republic - the narco-state of the Wa The jagged mountains dividing China and Burma belong to the Wa, an indigenous group who have outwitted the CIA to create the world's mightiest narco-state, controlling more territory than Israel and with more troops than Sweden. Are they crime lords? Or visionaries? Wa State has become a real nation with its own highways, anthems, schools and flags. Its leaders promise a utopia, using profits from trafficking heroin and meth to attain what China's other frontier peoples, Tibetans and Uighurs, can only dream of: a state of their own. Patrick Winn (author of Hello, Shadowlands) embarks on a risky journey of discovery, chasing clues about the forbidden republic from Thailand to Burma to the secretive Wa State itself.Trade ReviewThose who fail to read this forsake their chance to know the truth * Roberto Saviano *An outstanding book packed with history, humour, and adventure. America's struggle to thwart them Winn is the perfect guide to these highland outlaws and their incredible, defiant narcostate. This is the best reportage to come out of Southeast Asia in years. * Graeme Wood, author of The Way of Strangers *A riveting portrait of a little-known and often vilified people; a harrowing tale of Asia's epic, multibillion-dollar drugs trade. * Thant Myint-U, author The Hidden History of Burma *Winn has made a riveting read out of the largely overlooked- but critically important- Wa State .... The history behind it, the masterminds pulling the strings, and the many CIA operations against them. It's a fascinating and incredibly well-researched dive into Asia's underworld and some of the greatest narcotics traffickers in the region. And above all, it's beautifully crafted storytelling. * Isobel Yeung *Unputdownable .... An authentic page-turner revealing why the global drug problem remains unsolved. * Khuensai Jaiyen, former secretary to drug lord Khun Sa *Part gangster saga, part espionage thriller, and part liberation epic, Winn's narrative alternates between rollicking adventure and harrowing violence conveyed in vivid, muscular prose. * Publishers Weekly *At times, Narcotopia reads like a satire from the mind of Joseph Heller ... Winn tells this complex story with admirable clarity and a healthy dose of humour, and has drawn on a huge range of CIA and DEA documents, 'some declassified, others acquired by creative means'. * The Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisThis is the extraordinary story of how Charlie Wilson – renowned as one of the leaders of the Great Train Robbery gang – turned his back on so-called traditional crime to become the underworld’s original narco by helping to mastermind a multi-billion dollar drugs network in partnership with the original cocaine cowboy, Pablo Escobar. Wilson secretly helped turn cocaine into the Western world’s number one recreational drug of choice. Secret Narco unravels the bullet riddled, never-before-told history of South Londoner Wilson’s cocaine empire and his forays into the deadliest killing fields of all: South America. Bestselling author Wensley Clarkson’s meticulously researched story features interviews with many of Wilson’s friends, family members and enemies on both sides of the law enforcement divide, as well as associates of Pablo Escobar. Secret Narco also reveals the final, tragic circumstances behind Wilson and Escobar’s bloody deaths, and how their twisted ‘partnership’ proved that gangsters never rest in peace.

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Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER FROM PABLO ESCOBAR’S SONUntil now, we believed that everything had been said about the rise and fall of the most infamous drug lord of all time, Pablo Escobar – from books to film to the cult series ‘Narcos’. But these versions have always been told from the outside, only capturing half the truth, and never from the intimacy of his own home. Now, more than two decades after the full-fledged manhunt finally caught up with Escobar, his son brings us the dramatic truth as never before.Here we find a man of contradictions – generosity and infinite love for his family; yet capable of the most extreme acts of cruelty and violence. In a deeply personal exploration of his father, we see the inner world of a man who was celebrated by some as a benevolent Robin Hood figure and by others, as a dangerous leader of the most ruthless mafia organisation in human history, reaping vengeance and death on anyone that might stand in his way. When Escobar died, his then teenage son vowed revenge. But Escobar Jr. quickly recognised that meant following in his father's footsteps—something neither of them had ever wanted. With his change of heart, he denounced the Pablo Escobar legacy. This is far from the story of a child seeking redemption, but a shocking look at the consequences of violence and his attempt to come to terms with it.

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Book Synopsis‘It won’t happen to me. That’s what I thought when I got on the plane to Venezuela. But it did – I got caught.’Caught smuggling half a million euros’ worth of cocaine, Paul Keany was sexually assaulted by Venezuelan anti-drugs officers before being sentenced to eight years in the notorious Los Teques prison outside Caracas. There he was plunged into a nightmarish world of coke-fuelled killings, gun battles, stabbings, extortion and forced hunger strikes until finally, just over two years into his sentence, he gained early parole and embarked on a daring escape from South America . . .Aided by his extensive prison diaries, Keany reveals the true horror of life inside Los Teques: a shocking underworld behind bars where inmates pay protection money to stay alive, prostitutes do the rounds and vast amounts of cocaine are smuggled in for cell-block bosses to sell on to prisoners for huge profits. The Cocaine Diaries is a remarkable story, told by Keany with honesty, courage and even humour, despite knowing that every day behind bars might have been his last.

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Book Synopsis'Undercover, you're never just acting; you're only ever a different version of yourself.'Neil Woods spent fourteen years (1993-2007) infiltrating drug gangs as an undercover policeman, befriending and gaining the trust of some of the most violent, unpredictable criminals in Britain. But Neil was never your stereotypical gung-ho, tough-guy copper. This is the story of how a thoughtful, idealistic character learned to use his empathetic nature to master some of the roughest, most dangerous work in law enforcement. There was no training, no manual and no plan for when things went wrong; he was just dropped at a corner and told to make connections. But, inevitably, having swords thrust against his jugular, witnessing beatings, stabbings, and gangsters burning suspected rats with acid took its toll.Drawing on Neil’s experiences, with the insight that can only come from having fought on the front lines, GOOD COP, BAD WAR is at once a narrative-driven true crime read and a fascinating story of a character under pressure.Trade ReviewThis is the best book ever written about the British war on drugs. -- Johann HariGripping exposé of the disastrous reality of the drug war -- Decca Aitkenhead * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisJason Bourne is back. An exhilarating rush of a novel in Robert Ludlum''s legendary series.''Hugely enjoyable'' Sunday Times. ''Watch your back 007 - Bourne is out to get you'' - Sunday TimesWhen the head of Mossad learns that a major Mexican drug lord may be trafficking something far more deadly than drugs, he turns to his friend Jason Bourne for help. Bourne agrees to investigate, but he has his own agenda: revenge.The drug lord is responsible for the murder of Rebeka - one of the only people Bourne has ever truly cared for. But as Bourne attempts to avenge the woman he loved, he becomes embroiled in a monstrous world-wide scheme involving the Chinese, Mexicans, and Russians. Each step closer to vengeance is a step closer to his own death.Trade ReviewOlympic style, all-out espionage * DAILY EXPRESS *A force of nature * NEW YORK TIMES *Hugely enjoyable * SUNDAY TIMES *Slickly paced...all-consuming * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY *Bourne is more mysterious than Bond, more real than Batman and more complex than Bruce Willis * STELLA *Move over 007, Bourne is back * DAILY MIRROR *A new breed of spy - yes, he's highly trained and proficient at killing people, but he's still a normal guy * EMPIRE *Move over 007, Bourne is back * DAILY MIRROR *A force of nature * NEW YORK TIMES *Slickly paced...all-consuming * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY *Hugely enjoyable * SUNDAY TIMES *

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Book Synopsis With contributions from seven of Mexico''s finest journalists, this is reportage at its bravest and most necessary - it has the power to change the world''s view of their country, and by the force of its truth, to start to heal the country''s many sorrows. Supported the Arts Council Grant''s for the Arts Programme and by PEN Promotes Veering between carnival and apocalypse, Mexico has in the last ten years become the epicentre of the international drug trade. The so-called war on drugs has been a brutal and chaotic failure (more than 160,000 lives have been lost). The drug cartels and the forces of law and order are often in collusion, corruption is everywhere. Life is cheap and inconvenient people - the poor, the unlucky, the honest or the inquisitive - can be disappeared leaving not a trace behind (in September 2015, more than 26,798 were officially registered as not located). Yet people in all walks of life have refused to give up. Trade ReviewThe Sorrows of Mexico describes not only the bloody tragedy of this beautiful country, but also the struggle to make things better. -- Ioan Grillo * Author of Gangster Warlords and El Narco. *Indispensable . . . What is striking about these essays is the sensibilities they reveal, the sense of exasperation, resignation and wry anger coursing through the collection -- Scott Esposito * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisMiami, December 31, 1979. Lock your doors. Watch your backs. Raise your glasses. Miami is about to blow, in a fiery explosion of cocaine, blood, bullets, torched cars, cash, immigrants, hustlers, dopers, informants, corruption, body bags and inner tubes. In the seventies, coke hit Miami with the full force of a hurricane, and no place attracted dealers and dopers like Coconut Grove's Mutiny at Sailboat Bay. Hollywood royalty, rock stars, and models flocked to the hotel's club to order bottle after bottle of Dom and to snort lines alongside narcos, hit men, and gunrunners, all while marathon orgies burned upstairs in elaborate fantasy suites. Amid the boatloads of powder and cash reigned the new kings of Miami: three waves of Cuban immigrants vying to dominate the trafficking of one of the most lucrative commodities ever known to man. But as the kilosand bodiesbegan to pile up, the Mutiny became target number one for law enforcement. Based on exclusive interviews and never-before-seen documents, Hotel Scarface is a portrait of a city high on excess and greed, an extraordinary work of investigative journalism offering an unprecedented view of the rise and fall of cocaineand the Mutinyin Miami.Trade ReviewA raucous history of the cocaine boom. * New York Times *Part biography of a hotel, part elegant true-crime thriller, this is the ideal read for a South Beach winter sun lounger. * GQ *Hotel Scarface is a journey into the surreal. The book sizzles with exquisitely detailed reporting and a fast-paced narrative that thrusts the reader right into the middle of Miami's cocaine-fueled madness. We’re all lucky that Farzad's deft story-telling captures one of the most outrageous moments in American history in such a vivid way. * Ashlee Vance, New York Times bestselling author *Stay up all night partying with the narcos and rock stars of Roben Farzad’s Hotel Scarface — you can check out anytime, but you can never plead. * Vanity Fair *Thought I was reading a Carl Hiaasen novel. Then I realized it was NON-fiction. Hotel Scarface is to Miami what 'Narcos' is to Colombia. * Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, CNBC's Chief International Correspondent *

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Book SynopsisAgain and again British politicians, commentators and celebrities intone that ''The War on Drugs has failed''. They then say that this is an argument for abandoning all attempts to reduce drug use through the criminal law.Peter Hitchens shows that in Britain there has been no serious ''war on drugs'' since 1971, when a Tory government adopted a Labour plan to implement the revolutionary Wootton report. This gave cannabis, the most widely used illegal substance, a special legal status as a supposedly ''soft'' drug (in fact, Hitchens argues, it is at least as dangerous as heroin and cocaine because of the threat it poses to mental health). It began a progressive reduction of penalties for possession, and effectively disarmed the police.This process still continues, behind a screen of falsely ''tough'' rhetoric from politicians. Far from there being a ''war on drugs'', there has been a covert surrender to drugs, concealed behind an official obeisance to internatiTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface I. The Secret Capitulation 1. Cannabis is a Cause 2. How to Sink Giggling into the Sea 3. Psychiatry is Not an Exact Science 4. The Real Purpose of Classification 5. No Use Appealing to God. Try John Stuart Mill 6. Cannabis and Violence 7. What about Alcohol and Tobacco then? 8. The Cabinet gets it Wrong 9. Enter Richard Crosman 10. Jim Callaghan's last Stand II. The Search for Soma 11. Aldous Huxley 12. The Left Casts of its Puritan Garments 13. The Mysterious Spread of Cannabis 14. Jaggerism is Invented 15. Bloomsbury Takes Over Britain via the Airwaves 16. Steve Adams Steps Up to Explain 17. The Long March-Wootton and After 18. Widdicombe Unfair 19. Lady Runciman - Who is She? 20. Legislation on the Beat - Brian Paddick 21. The Great Red Herring - Medical Marijuana 22. Freeing Up or Freeing Down 23. Some Notes on Harm Reduction and Rehabilitation 24. The Demoralisation of Britain Index

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Book Synopsis'I WANTED TO SEND A MESSAGE TO THE CARTELS. WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE. WE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT HARD FOR YOU.BUT AS I WOULD SOON FIND OUT, THEY WERE GOING TO MAKE IT HARD FOR ME, TOO.'Infiltrating cartels and bringing down international drug lords since his days in 1980s Chicago, Jack Riley was one of the best agents the Drug Enforcement Administration had ever had. But when he moved to the border town of El Paso, he was on the front line of the battle against Mexican cartels waging war just miles away. His brief was to capture the DEA's deadliest target: El Chapo.For over twenty years, Riley had seen the fear and bloodshed that Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán Loera and his Sinaloa Cartel had caused, whilst the availability of drugs on American streets had exploded. Soon after arriving in El Paso, Riley found himself entangled in America's most deadly feud, and a bounty on his head. . .Drug Warrior is a thrilling journey into a life spent at the heart of America's drug wars, including the opioids crisis now ravaging its heartland, and a unique insight into the DEA's operation to finally bring its long-time nemesis to justice.Trade Review[Chicago's] most famous federal agent since the days of The Untouchables * Rolling Stone *For 15 years, Chapo has been Riley's white whale, the object of an obsession that teetered on derangement and sidelined everything else, including his family... A ruddy, white-haired bruiser who holds court from a bar stool, Riley seemed dispatched from the days of fedoras and cops lighting Luckies at crime scenes. -- Paul Solotaroff * Rolling Stone *

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Book SynopsisLike the never-ending War on Terror, the drugs war is a multi-billion-dollar industry that won’t go down without a fight. Pills, Powder, and Smoke explains why. The War on Drugs has been official American policy since the 1970s, with the UK, Europe, and much of the world following suit. It is at best a failed policy, according to bestselling author Antony Loewenstein. Its direct results have included mass incarceration in the US, extreme violence in different parts of the world, the backing of dictatorships, and surging drug addiction globally. And now the Trump administration is unleashing diplomatic and military forces against any softening of the conflict. Pills, Powder, and Smoke investigates the individuals, officials, activists, victims, DEA agents, and traffickers caught up in this deadly war. Travelling through the UK, the US, Australia, Honduras, the Philippines, and Guinea-Bissau, Loewenstein uncovers the secrets of the drug war, why it’s so hard to end, and who is really profiting from it. In reporting on the frontlines across the globe — from the streets of London’s King’s Cross to the killing fields of Central America to major cocaine transit routes in West Africa — Loewenstein reveals how the War on Drugs has become the most deadly war in modern times. Trade Review‘Lucid and well-researched.’ -- James Bloodworth * The Times *‘Vivid reportage.’ -- Colin Murphy * The Irish Times *‘Loewenstein gives a thorough and convincing picture of an utterly failed policy.’ -- Will Self * The Observer *‘An eye-opening exposé of the modern drugs trade.’ -- Colin Freeman * The Daily Telegraph *‘Loewenstein’s book is meticulous and forensic, and also impassioned and urgent. What stands out is the clarity of his thinking and the rigour of his arguments. He has an historian’s grasp of the big picture and a storyteller's skill for getting us to walk in the other's shoes. The vast scope of his thinking, travel and research is evident on every page, as is his clear-headed compassion. This book is vital and I couldn't put it down.’ -- Christos Tsiolkas‘Antony Loewenstein is an amazing journalist and this is an amazing book. Anyone who cares about the war on drugs - one of the biggest catastrophes in the world - should read this superb book right away.’ -- Johann Hari, author of Lost Connections and Chasing the Scream‘Many people assume that as the war on drugs has failed and because a few countries have liberated cannabis as a recreational drug as well as a medicine, the “drug problem” is solved. This new book powerfully demolishes any such complacency that might have developed in the west. Drug wars represent a major, ongoing world-wide disaster. This book is a must-read for anyone pursuing a rational policy debate about drugs.’ * Professor David Nutt, Imperial College, London *‘In this vivid, partisan piece of reportage, Australian journalist Loewenstein (Disaster Capitalism) depicts the catastrophic human consequences of the U.S.-led war on drugs and advocates for the legalisation of all illicit substances. Loewenstein argues that America’s prohibitionist policy serves not to counter abuse or impede trafficking, but rather to create corrupt “narco states” that are complicit with the federal government’s foreign policy goals ... Readers inclined to take a skeptical view of the drug war ... will welcome Loewenstein’s advocacy.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘A critique of the war on drugs, which, by the author’s account, is mostly a war on the poor and dispossessed ... The author examines several fronts in a war fought by Western governments, especially the U.S., on harder drugs that ‘are consumed nightly in such major cities as London, Sydney, New York, and Paris’ ... A sometimes overwrought but pressing survey calling into question a war that would seem to benefit only its combatants.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘Pills, Powder, and Smoke provides vital coverage of a war that may never be won, but that desperately demands out attention.’ -- Kylie Maslen * Kill Your Darlings *‘He brings humanity and an even hand to his journalism, attempting to draw out multiple perspectives and asking questions from all angles but doing so with intimacy and palpable emotion ... Loewenstein believes in a moral drug policy, in ethical drug-taking and in fair-trade drugs, and makes no bones about wanting to change the conversation.’ -- Louise Swinn * The Saturday Paper *‘A great read that cements my view that the war on drugs will never be won.’ -- Wendy Squires * The Age *‘Thought-provoking.’ -- Colin Freeman * The Telegraph *‘A forensic look at the war on drugs.’ * Take 5 Magazine *Praise for Disaster Capitalism: ‘Chilling study, based on careful and courageous reporting, and illuminated with perceptive analysis, helps us understand all too well the saying that man is a wolf to man.’ -- Noam ChomskyPraise for Disaster Capitalism: ‘A journey into a world of mutated economics and corrupt politics that we ignore at our peril.’ -- John PilgerPraise for Disaster Capitalism: ‘I am very grateful that Antony Loewenstein has brought his meticulous reporting to this subject, and the result is a keenly observed and timely investigation into rampant resource plunder, privatised detention centres, and an array of other forms of corporate rapacity on four continents. This book will serve as a potent weapon for shock resistors around the world.’ -- Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

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Book SynopsisWar on Drugs has done almost nothing to prevent drugs from being sold or used, but it has nonetheless created a little-known surveillance state in America's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The author introduces you to an unforgettable cast of young African American men who are caught up in this web of warrants and surveillance.Trade Review"This is a truly wonderful book that identifies the casualties of the war on drugs that extend beyond the prison walls.... The detail is incredible. The research is impeccable. Read it and weep." (Times Higher Education) "Extraordinary.... The best work of ethnography I have read in a very, very long time." (LSE Review of Books) "An exceptional book.... Devastating." (Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker) "A remarkable feat of reporting." (Alex Kotlowitz, New York Times Book Review)

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Book SynopsisWhy did the international drug regulatory regime of the twentieth century fail to stop an explosive increase in trade and consumption of illegal drugs? This book investigates the histories of smugglers and criminal entrepreneurs in the Netherlands who succeeded in turning the country into the so-called ‘Colombia of Europe’.Increasing state regulations and interventions led to the proliferation of a ‘hydra’ of small, anarchic groups and networks ideally suited to circumvent the enforcement of regulation. Smugglers and suppliers of heroin, cocaine, cannabis, and other drugs created a thriving underground industry of illegal synthetic drug labs and indoor cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands itself, made possible because of the embedded criminal anarchy in Dutch society.Using examples from the rich history of drug smuggling, Drug smuggler nation investigates the hidden grounds of the illegal drug trade, and its effects on our drug policies.Trade Review'Describing the development of covert networks is among the most daunting of social science projects. Like official corruption and espionage, organized crime prospers by remaining hidden. Snelders (Utrecht Univ.) successfully lifts the veil of secrecy, offering a convincing account of the evolution of drug smuggling in the 20th-century Netherlands. Combining materials drawn from official law enforcement statistics, crime news coverage, and academic journal articles, Snelders exposes drug smuggling in a new light. Rather than describe the handful of large-scale, highly integrated smuggling enterprises directed by criminal masterminds as often portrayed in works of popular culture, Snelders unveils an anarchic universe of small entrepreneurial enterprises connected through shared workplaces and/or culture. Overall, what Snelders strongly suggests is the virtual impossibility of finally suppressing drug smuggling.Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.'CHOICE (May 2022)'This thickly researched well-written book should be of great interest to historians, criminologists, and legal scholars alike. Frankly, I found little to argue with in this excellent book, which is a strong contribution to the intrinsically challenging and relatively new genre of smuggling history. In short, Drug Smuggler Nation is a deeply researched book that almost defines its place as interdisciplinary criminological history.'Paul Gootenberg, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books (March 2022)'All in all, there are very few improvements that one could suggest for Snelders’ superb study.'Peder Clark, European Review of History (May 2022) -- .Table of Contents1 Introduction: the drug regulatory regime vs. criminal anarchy2 The interwar period3 Global perils I: Chinese and Greek drug smugglers4 Cannabis, counterculture, and criminals: The rise of cannabis smuggling5 Global perils II: Chinese triads, Turkish families, and heroin6 The expansion of the cannabis trade after 19767 Global perils III: Colombian syndicates and cocaine8 The floodgates of criminal anarchy: Synthetic drugs and subverting the state9 ConclusionAppendix: Graphs of arrests and seizuresBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis is your nation's history on drugsAmericans are stumbling through a world-historic drug binge. Opiates, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, marijuana, antidepressants, antipsychotics-across the board, consumption has shot up in the twenty-first century. At the same time, the United States is home to the largest prison system in the world, justified in part by a now zombified "war" on drugs. How did we get here?Quick Fixes blows away the pharmacological fog to take a sober look at how drugs have shaped American society. Though particularly acute in recent decades, the contradiction between America's passionate love for and intense hatred of these sub - stances has been one of its defining characteristics for over a century. Through nine chapters, each devoted to the modern history of a drug or class of drugs, Fong examines Americans' fraught relationship with psychoactive substances. As society changes, it produces different forms of stress, isolation, and alienation. These changes, in turn, affect the development and spread of medications and narcotics among the populace.By laying out the histories, functions, and experiences of our chemical com - forts, the hope is to help answer that ever-perplexing question: what does it mean to be an American?Trade ReviewProvocative, methodical, and righteously witty, Quick Fixes provides the fullest articulation I've seen of an argument often implied but rarely fleshed out: that 'drug problems' such as addiction and brutal drug wars are actually about capitalism rather than drugs. Under capitalism, Fong argues, drugs have been used to extract more labor from workers, to profit from workers' isolation and need for relief, and to police marginalized so-called 'surplus' populations. As a result both drug use and drug policing have become harmful compulsions. And because these compulsions are caused by capitalism, not drugs, we cannot free ourselves simply by ending the drug war. -- David Herzberg, author of White Market DrugsDrugs are deeply integrated into American capitalism, not just American culture. 'Profit wins in the end,' as Ben Fong says, but his clear, thoughtful, and troubling account improves the odds of the fight for better, longer lives. -- Craig Calhoun, coauthor of Degenerations of DemocracyWith drug use surging in the US, Ben Fong's fascinating look into America's relationship with psychoactive substances is unprecedented both in rigor and scope. It's a history you've never read before, and a desperately needed examination of where we are, how we got here, and why exactly we're all so blitzed. -- Amber A'Lee Frost, Chapo Trap House

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Book SynopsisMurder Inc. is the latest blockbuster by Ireland''s most respected crime writer and journalist, Paul Williams. Murder Inc. is the definitive account of how organized crime exploded in Limerick from the 1990s and in the noughties. It describes the depravity and decadence of the gangs, their deadly rivaliries, and their reigns of terror over the community in which they lived. Finally, Williams traces the faultlines that eventually led to the implosion of the gangs and their defeat.Drawing on his vast inside knowledge of the criminal underworld, an unparalleled range of contacts and eye witness interviews, Paul Williams provides a chilling insight into the mobsters and events that corroded entire neighbourhoods and devastated countless lives.

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Book SynopsisIn 1987, Wayne Anthony and two friends established the legendary Genesis raves that were attended by the wide-eyed, loved-up youth of the late Eighties and early Nineties. Wayne and the Genesis team took Acid House to the masses and changed the face of British rave culture. Wayne then promoted a series of events around Europe, released a series of infamous compilation albums under the banner Havin' It'. Since then Wayne has been involved in Internet start-ups and tech companies. He spent the last ten years at the helm of LSD Magazine, one of Europe's biggest street art graffiti networks. He is currently in the process of launching the world's first dedicated street art graffiti channel from Los Angeles.

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Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERHotel K - Bali''s most notorious jail - is Hell in Paradise.Welcome to Hotel Kerobokan, or Hotel K, Bali''s most notorious jail. Its walls touch paradise; sparkling oceans, surf beaches and palm trees on one side, while on the other it''s a dark, bizarre and truly frightening underworld of sex, drugs, violence and squalor. Hotel K''s filthy and disease ridden cells have been home to the infamous and the tragic: a Balinese King, Gordon Ramsay''s brother, Muslim terror bombers, beautiful women tourists and surfers from across the globe. Petty thieves share cells with killers, rapists, and gangsters. Hardened drug traffickers sleep alongside unlucky tourists, who''ve seen their holiday turn from paradise to hell over one ecstasy pill. Hotel K is the shocking inside story of the jail and its inmates, revealing the wild ''sex nights'' organised by corrupt guards for the prisoners who have cash to pay, the jail''s ecstasy Table of ContentsAuthor's note. Foreword: For One Night Only. Welcome to Hotel Kerobokan. Thomas. The Headless Corpse. The Great Escape. Let's Play. No Star to Five Star. Touching Paradise. The Women's Block. The Blue Room. Plasticine Guards. Terrorists and the King Check In. The Dealers. Rolling the Dice. Animal Farm. With Friends Like These. An Eye for an Eye. Sex on the Beach. Raids. Kerobokan Crew. Room 13. No More Tomorrows. Operation Transfer. Where Are They Now? Acknowledgements.

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Book Synopsis''A CINEMATIC RECORD OF HOW AN ACTOR SHAPES A CAREER'' Tom Hanks''FUNNY, SAD AND HEARTFELT'' Vince Gilligan''GRITTY, FUNNY AND SAD'' Entertainment Weekly''A SUPERB ANECDOTALIST'' Sunday Times Culture''RIVETING... ENGROSSING'' Huffington PostBRYAN CRANSTON maps his journey from abandoned son to beloved star, recalling the many odd parts he''s played in real life, and chronicles his evolution on camera. For the first time he shares the story of his early years, from his time as a soap opera regular to his recurring spots on Seinfeld and his role as bumbling father Hal on Malcolm in the Middle, along with an inspiring account of how he prepared for the award-winning role of President Lyndon Johnson.Of course, Cranston dives deep into the grittiest details of his greatest role, explaining how he searched inward for the personal darkness that would help him create one of thTrade ReviewBryan Cranston has created a cinematic record of how an actor shapes a career and an identity and a legacy all at the same time. -- Tom HanksI loved this book. It's just the right mixture of funny, sad and heartfelt. If I'd known Bryan could tell stories this well, I would have had him writing episodes of Breaking Bad. -- Vince GilliganThe highs here -and there are many -are meth-less but addictive. * KIRKUS REVIEWS *This splendid, moving, heartbreaking memoir is doubly triumphant. It regales and entertains while at the same time providing inspiration and practical wisdom. A truly gifted storyteller, Cranston captures the reader's imagination and emotions from beginning to end. -- Doris Kearns GoodwinBy turns gritty,funny, and sad, this fiercely intelligent book from the Breaking Bad star defies celebrity memoir tropes. -- Entertainment Weekly[A] substantial memoir from one of Hollywood's most introspective stars...anyone interested in acting will devour Cranston's savvy advice about honing one's craft and building one's career. -- BooklistIt's an engrossing first-person account by one of our finest actors and I couldn't put it down. -- Phil Simon * HUFFINGTON POST *Fans of Breaking Bad will be glued to this riveting memoir, which looks at how he worked to create such a dark and legendary character. But long before Walter White, Bryan Cranston's life story was fascinating and dramatic. * IRISH COUNTRY MAGAZINE *His memoir, A Life in Parts, shows him as a superb anecdotalist with an honest take on how he dealt with fame found later in life. * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE *a fascinating read and a satisfying look into Cranston's life -- Pip Ellwood * ENTERTAINMENT FOCUS *A great guy reading his great book to you like you're both just downing session IPAs in some crack-in-the-wall bar no one else has found. Cranston's widely acclaimed memoir has been winning praise for its earnest account of a good man fighting to be the actor he always dreamed of, and his gentle, confessional honesty shines through all the more when spoken in his loveable folksy tones. * MR HYDE *Candid and richly entertaining memoir -- Jane Shilling * DAILY MAIL *

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Book SynopsisCritical analysis of Plan Colombia, a multibillion dollar US counternarcotics initiative. Plan Colombia was an ambitious, multibillion dollar program of American aid to the country of Colombia to fight that nation's recreational drug industry. First signed into law by President Clinton in 2000, the program would, over a twelve year period, provide the Colombian government with more money than every other country in the region. But how successful was Plan Colombia, and is it a model worthwhile in applying to other countries? In The Losing War, Jonathan D. Rosen applies international relations theory to understand how the goals and objectives of Plan Colombia evolved over time, particularly after the events of 9/11. Various individuals, including Álvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia from 20022010, and George W. Bush, argued that Plan Colombia should be used as a model to help other countries combat drug trafficking. Plan Colombia was not mentioned in the Obama administration's 2011 budget proposal and no longer exists today. Rosen concludes that the policy failed to make substantial inroads in curtailing drug cultivation, production, or trafficking, thus calling into question the value of applying the same strategy to other countries, such as Mexico, in the present or future.

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Book SynopsisFor Detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta, tormented by past heartbreak and dismayed by all-pervasive corruption, the murder of lawyer Bruno Canizales represents just another day at the office in Culiacán, Mexico's capital of narco-crime.There is no shortage of suspects in a city where it's hard to tell the gangsters from the politicians. Canizales was the son of a former government minister and the lover of a drug lord's daughter, and he nurtured a penchant for cross-dressing and edgy sex. But why did the assassin use a silver bullet? And why, six days later, did he apparently strike again? Mendieta's hunt for the killer takes him from mansions to low-life bars, from gumshoe reporters to glamourous transsexuals. Unearthing the truth can be as dangerous as any drug.Trade ReviewOne of the biggest names in Mexican literature . . . A true novelist . . . No one has captured the exciting and passionate nature of the Mexican vernacular like him -- Arturo Pérez-ReverteIf you are fed up with formulaic noir novels and looking for something fresher, Elmer Mendoza's dazzling Silver Bullets could be the answer * Sunday Times *Presents Mexico in a darkly surrealist light: corrupt politicos, a plague of narco-crime and only battered detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta on the side of the angels * Independent *Casts a wide net over modern Mexican life and an array of well-drawn characters, some powerful, some weak, some depraved . . . Mendoza's creation is nothing like standard pulp fiction * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book Synopsis'I was a drug trafficker in the true sense of the word: a pure narco.'For 25 years Luis Antonio Navia the Cuban-American smuggled hundreds of tons of white powder for the biggest cartels in Colombia and Mexico, including Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel.What made him good at his dangerous job was amassing trusted contacts, losing very few shipments of coke, and maintaining a low profile. He refused to carry a weapon. But he was never far removed from the most brutal violence imaginable. One friend got his head cut off. Another was hit over the head, stuffed in a 55-gallon drum full of cement and dumped in a canal. Navia himself was kidnapped three times and went close to being fed alive to crocodiles. Somehow through it all he managed to survive and spent two decades fooling law-enforcement agencies until he came under the radar of Robert Harley, a tenacious US Customs special agent in Key West, Florida, who was determined to bring him to justice.What followed was an international game of cat-and-mouse that culminated in Navia's 2000 capture in Venezuela in one of the biggest antinarcotics takedowns of all time, the 12-nation Operation Journey.Spanning decades, continents and featuring a who's who of the drug trade, Pure Narco is a fast-paced adventure ride into the dark underworld of cocaine trafficking, written with the cooperation of a dozen law-enforcement agents from the world's top antinarcotics forces in the United States and Great Britain. Navia served his time in jail and is now free to tell his tale. His is the rare perspective of someone who has worked on both sides of that war: as a cocaine trafficker and US Government consultant. This book is a redemption story. Luis Navia, the pure narco, has gone full circle.Trade ReviewIf Howard Marks was the king of the cannabis smuggle, Luis Navia is the Howard Marks of the cocaine trade * Graham Honey, HMCE Senior Investigation Officer (Ret.) *With a cast of wild, grotesque and often deadly characters, strapped into a rollercoaster they cannot or will not get off, Pure Narco is a deliriously pleasurable ride. Luis Navia was a key trafficker for the biggest Colombian and Mexican cartels, and his insight into how they flooded the USA and Europe with drugs is unparalleled. This is the best insider account ever written of the global cocaine trade and the outrageous but precarious lives of those at the top * Peter Walsh, author, Drug War: The Secret History *Pure Narco is a true story of redemption ... it offers a rare glimpse into the life of a drug smuggler from the Miami Vice era to the end of the millennium, when it all came crashing down for Luis Navia * Nigel Brooks, USCS Senior Special Agent (Ret.) *A rare insight into the drug traffickers' world and law enforcement's efforts to arrest them and seize the drugs. * Graham Titmuss, HMCE Investigation Officer (Ret.) *I first met Luis Navia in Miami in 2002. He was cooperating with authorities and had some significant information to share with the United Kingdom. I remember leaving the prison after two days of visits and thinking what an amazing character he was. The discussions with Luis changed my perspective on top-level drug trafficking and traffickers; it was a moment of enlightenment.'Much is written and appears on screen about the drugs business but so often it misses the mark. That's not the case with this insightful book: Pure Narco hits the spot and tells it as it was. Law-enforcement officers have a saying that all top traffickers end up dead or in prison. Very few survive to tell the tale. Typical of the man, Luis is a survivor and tells his own tale in great depth and clarity. This is how it was. But Luis also needed a sympathetic ear to get the best out of his unique story and Jesse Fink has done that by writing the very best account of a remarkable life in cocaine trafficking.'Contrary to what we read in news reports and see on TV, trafficking is a highly complex business. It's not just based on violence, corruption, greed and all the other stereotypes. Every big cocaine shipment happens because of the fixer, the broker, the emissary. Luis Navia was all of these. The reality is the biggest deals or shipments happen because of key individuals with the people and business skills to make things happen. Luis is one of those people. He brought people together, he solved problems, he found a way to get things done.'What makes Luis's story so unique was his ability to transcend the politics between rival groups (cartels). His strength of personality, charm and business brain made him a valued business associate on so many major shipments. Typically, Luis made and lost a fortune: which is so often the case at the top level of international cocaine trafficking. Pure Narco explains how that's possible and why the business is both richly rewarding while being a precarious and perilous existence. It also explains how the big deals were conceived, planned and delivered. The mechanics of the deals are set out here, as Luis explains the key stages required for a successful shipment and deal. No other book on drug trafficking provides this level of detail.'I knew back in the 1990s that the work we were doing was groundbreaking, and that it was an era that would be looked back upon by historians. Pure Narco is a great book and an important part of social history. I loved every page. Having this account from Luis Navia will be part of his legacy. If you have an interest in and want to understand how international drug trafficking really works, you must read Pure Narco * Barry Clarke, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise Investigation Officer (Retired) *Luis Navia was one of the biggest drug traffickers ever known - but never heard of. Jesse Fink's in-depth, entertaining and informative account of Luis's life during the height of the cocaine trade in the United States in the 1980s and '90s is like a speck in the eyes of a race-car driver moving at 200 miles an hour, albeit a large speck.Pure Narco reveals how a seemingly regular "businessman" can in reality be a successful drug trafficker * Vicente M. Garcia, HSI Assistant Special Agent in Charge (Ret.) *

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Book Synopsis“Riveting…an electrifying true crime story of the Mafia-smitten eighties and nineties. Suspenseful and multifaceted, The Gotti Wars can’t be missed.” —Esquire, The Best Nonfiction Books of the YearA “meticulous chronicle of good triumphing over evil” (The Washington Post) from the determined young prosecutor who, in two of America’s most celebrated trials, managed to convict famed mob boss John Gotti—and ultimately took down the Mafia altogether. John Gotti was without a doubt the flashiest and most feared Mafioso in American history. He became the boss of the Gambino Crime Family in spectacular fashion—with the brazen and very public murder of Paul Castellano in front of Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan in 1985. Not one to stay below law enforcement’s radar, Gotti instead became the first celebrity crime boss. His penchant for eye-catching apparel earned him the nickname “The Dapper Don;” his ability to beat criminal charges led to another: “The Teflon Don.” This is the captivating story of Gotti’s meteoric rise to power and his equally dramatic downfall. Every step of the way, Gotti’s legal adversary—John Gleeson, an Assistant US Attorney in Brooklyn—was watching. When Gotti finally faced two federal racketeering prosecutions, Gleeson prosecuted both. As the junior lawyer in the first case—a bitter seven-month battle that ended in Gotti’s acquittal—Gleeson found himself in Gotti’s crosshairs, falsely accused of serious crimes by a defense witness Gotti intimidated into committing perjury. Five years later, Gleeson was in charge of the second racketeering investigation and trial. Armed with the FBI’s secret recordings of Gotti’s conversations with his underboss and consigliere in the apartment above Gotti’s Little Italy hangout, Gleeson indicted all three. He “flipped” underboss Sammy the Bull Gravano, killer of nineteen men, who became history’s highest-ranking mob turncoat—resulting in Gotti’s murder conviction. Gleeson ended not just Gotti’s reign, but eventually that of the entire mob. A spellbinding, page-turning courtroom drama, The Gotti Wars “tells us in electrifying detail how the good guys finally won, how justice triumphed over evil, and how Gleeson himself was transformed by his long war” (Nelson DeMille).Trade Review“A useful reminder, especially for Mafia romanticizers, that we’re dealing with sociopathic knuckle scrapers who settle scores with casual brutality…Gleeson, a lawyer in private practice these days, is an able storyteller [and his book displays] keen insights and neat turns of phrase.” —New York Times “The Gotti Wars is the riveting story of Gleeson’s fight to bring Gotti to justice, which spanned years, brought him into the crosshairs of organized crime, and ultimately took down five major mob families. It’s an electrifying true crime story of the Mafia-smitten 80s and 90s, to be certain, but also a vivid memoir of Gleeson’s development as a lawyer, and an excavation of the celebrity culture that turned a murderer into a superstar. Suspenseful and multifaceted, The Gotti Wars can’t be missed.” —Esquire, "The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022 (So Far)"“In this exceptional debut, former federal prosecutor Gleeson chronicles his efforts to bring Gambino family crime boss John Gotti to justice…A must-read for anyone interested in organized crime.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)“Compelling…Gleeson has crafted this retelling as carefully as he prepped the two cases [against the mobster]. His description of the politics behind the scenes and his interactions with the likes of U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr are icing on the cake….Do we need yet another book on Gotti? Gleeson answers the question with a resounding yes.” —Library Journal (starred review)"A memoir from the federal prosecutor who took down the “Teflon Don” 30 years ago…Gleeson is a thorough writer…[The Gotti Wars] offers a realistic portrait of how big cases are pieced together." —Kirkus Reviews“Spellbinding...tells us in electrifying detail how the good guys finally won, how justice triumphed over evil, and how Gleeson himself was transformed by his long war.” —Nelson DeMille, New York Times bestselling author of The Gold Coast and Wild Fire “Vivid, evocative, and genuinely suspenseful…An impressively detailed account of what it was like in the late 80’s and early 90’s to be chasing a flashy, dangerous mobster who had morphed into a pop culture icon…. John Gleeson is one of the most gifted prosecutors ever to match up against the Mafia. As I should have guessed, he is also an immensely gifted storyteller.” —Mary Jo White, former Chair of the SEC, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and former Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York “Unflinchingly honest…contains moments that are both frightening and funny. I covered the rise and fall of John Gotti for seven years—through three trials and a dozen murders. I thought I knew this story inside and out, but this book shows I was mistaken. As John Gleeson tells the full story of how he built his ironclad case, you’ll feel like you’re sitting in the room where it happened—with the same nerve-jangling anticipation of how it will all turn out.” —John Miller, former co-anchor of 20/20 and, currently, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism for the NYPD “A unique unveiling of the prosecutorial strategy that vanquished the American Mafia's most exalted late 20th century gangster. As a bonus, Gleeson offers candid views of the skills and shortcomings of his main opponents: the Teflon Don's battery of mob lawyers. Perhaps from his former perch on the bench his next book should pinpoint the frailties of our creaky criminal-justice system.” —Selwyn Raab, New York Times bestselling author of The Five Families “John Gotti flashed an arrogance and audacity that became a gauntlet thrown down to law enforcement. To his credit, Gleeson shows, in this absolutely riveting memoir, that Hollywood’s image of a prosecutor who does it all by himself is pure fantasy. Ultimately, The Gotti Wars is a testament to the camaraderie that forms around any consequential prosecution. In these pages, you get to experience how touch and go it actually was.” —Eric Holder, 82nd Attorney General of the United States "Well-written…John Gleeson, who took the swagger away from John Gotti, shares his up-close and personal view of Gotti, his cronies, and the Mafia world he observed before, during, and after his two knock-down, drag-out trials against the late Dapper Don." —Jerry Capeci, reporter-columnist at ganglandnews.com and coauthor of Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti and Murder Machine “Absorbing, even inspiring…Epicenters of media attention, the courtrooms in which the fates of John Gotti and his co-defendants were decided became—over a period of months and ultimately years—scenes of magnificent legal combat…. Second chair in the first case and lead prosecutor in the second, John Gleeson had to continually improvise to thwart defendants who would resort to any ploy, legal or otherwise, to gain their freedom.” —David N. Kelley, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York

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Book SynopsisThe Business Secrets of Drug Dealing tells the story of a hyper-observant, politically-minded, but humorously pragmatic weed dealer who has spent a working life compiling rules for how to a) make money and b) avoid prison. Each rule shapes a chapter of this fast-paced outlaw tale, all delivered in his deliciously trenchant argot. Here are a few of them: No guns but keep shooters. Stay behind the white guy. Don’t snitch. Always have a job. Be multi-sourced. Get your money and get out. Part edge-of-the-seat suspense story, part how-to manual in the tradition of The Anarchist Cookbook, The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing is as scintillating as it is subversive. Just reading it feels illegal.Trade Review“Taibbi, a writer of striking intelligence and bold ideas, is as hilarious as he is scathing.” — Publishers Weekly “A welcome, lyrical defense of ‘coaxing a beautiful thing out of the ground and bringing it to your door.'” — The Bohemian “Lays bare the link between organised crime, the state and policing” — Morning Star “An entertaining fictional pusher reveals sobering real-life truths” — Washington Independent Review of Books “[An] honest and humane approach to the nasty business of business under contemporary capitalism” — People’s World

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Book SynopsisZachary Swan: world-class smuggler of the finest cocaine, wicked genius, first-class fool. In his brief and brilliant career as a founding father of the trade, Swan serves the world's most elegant clientele by the most inelegant means, always staying just one step ahead.Robert Sabbag's rip-roaring modern classic of reporting follows Zachary from the streets of Bogotá to the nightclubs of New York, charting the soaring high and the crashing comedown of a legend.Trade ReviewSabbag is an incisive reporter and a stylish class-A writer * * The Times * *A flat-out ballbuster. It moves like a threshing machine with a fuel tank of ether * * Hunter S. Thompson * *One of the first books about the cocaine trade and it is still among the best * * Norman Mailer * *An extremely rare cut of dry wit, poetry, rock-hard fact and relentless insight into modern American morality * * Rolling Stone * *The scammer's bible . . . Snowblind has stood the test of time. It's still the best * * Howard Marks * *Un-put-downable . . . the best book ever written about cocaine * * Loaded * *

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Book SynopsisThe ‘ndrangheta – the Calabrian region of Italy’s mafia – is one of wealthiest and most powerful criminal organizations today. It is considered Italy’s most powerful mafia; it’s not only the main object of concern for anti-mafia units in Italy, but also for joint investigative teams in Europe and beyond. Combining autobiography, travel ethnography, memoir, academic rigour and investigative journalism, this book provides a global outlook on the ‘ndrangheta, taking the reader to small villages and locations in Italy and abroad to Australia, Canada, United States and Argentina.Table of ContentsPrologue 1. Mafia, Memories and Journeys 2. Wine, Cannabis and Ancestors: Rural Australia 3. Aspromonte, the Roots 4. From St Kilda to Kings Cross 5. Bombs, Bridges and Gold 6. North American Hybrids 7. The Port, the Sea and the Wrong Sun 8. ’Ndrangheta City and Spiderwebs Epilogue

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Book SynopsisThe gritty prison memoir of Michaella McCollum, one half of the infamous 'Peru Two', imprisoned in a Peruvian jail for attempting to smuggle 11kg of cocaine from Peru to Madrid in August 2013. She was just a regular girl, spending the summer working at a bar in Ibiza, until she was approached by a man who asked her if she'd like to make some quick, easy money...and it would change her life forever. This is the truth of her time in prison, told through her own diaries and letters to her mother, family and friends, recounting tales of vicious guards, psychotic inmates and horrendous prison conditions.A brilliantly affecting tale of a naïve young girl who starts out in the Ibiza party scene and comes of age in the dark heart of Peru, before finally emerging into the sun a stronger, more confident, mature young woman.Trade ReviewRiveting * The Times *

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Book SynopsisClandestine chemistry and the LA underworld provide the atmosphere for this kaleidoscopic tale of lost memories and the heartbreak of finding them, from the author of The Contortionist's Handbook'.When Eric Ashworth wakes in jail, he has no idea how he got there, or why. His only memory is a woman''s name: Desiree.Released on bail and holed up in a low-rent motel, Eric starts to piece together his former life as a chemist at the centre of a desert drug ring with the help of a powerful new hallucinogen which simultaneously loosens his grip on the present. As the events of his past begin to emerge from the confusion of his fragmented memory, Eric must contend with a gnawing paranoia and the need for ever-increasing fixes not to mention disturbing visits from an intimidating police detective, his former associate Manhattan White and the ominously named Toe Tag. As his grip on reality becomes more tenuous, past and present, reality and fantasy begin to bleed into each other, bringing thisTrade Review'What makes this worth reading is Craig Clevenger's extraordinary prose: the pleasure of text is everything.' Guardian ‘What makes the book so unique, so compulsively readable, is Clevenger’s ability to make complex images seem so unforced.’ Independent on Sunday ‘A brilliant satire.’ Sainsbury’s Magazine 'It's dizzying stuff…no wonder Chuck Palahniuk is singing his praises on the back cover.' Metro Praise for ‘The Contortionist’s Handbook’: 'A dazzling and highly original debut novel which instantly establishes its author as one of the most interesting writers to emerge in years. This book deserves to be massive and I think it will be.' Irvine Welsh ‘Craig Clevenger has crafted an unforgettable antihero in John Dolan Vincent. This is an extraordinary debut.’ Richard Kelly, director of ‘Donnie Darko’ ‘What sticks out about this remarkable debut are its pitch-perfect shock ending and John Vincent himself – his complex, conflicting mind, original voice and unnervingly self-defeating existence.’ Time Out

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Book SynopsisYou've got to fight for everything when you start with nothing.Susan Knight has a good life. So she turns a blind eye to the gambling winnings her husband Donny puts through the books at her salon. After all, he needs some way to unwind. At work, he is headteacher at Second Chance, an alternative provision school for kids who have nowhere else to go.Being the headteacher gives Donny respect, money, and charm. But respect can be lost, money can be stolen and charm can only go so far.The kids at the school all have a story to tell as do the staff. Drugs, debt, violence and threat are part of their everyday lives. Donny's got this far by never playing by the rules. But to keep winning, you have to keep chancing it all. To stay at the top means risking everything.Susan knows Donny walks a fine line but if he stumbles too far on the wrong side of the tracks can she stand by him? And for Donny, if he loses Susan, he knows he might be pulled back into the life that's been waiting for him all this timeTrade Review‘The northern Martina Cole’ Melanie Blake, bestselling author of Ruthless Women ‘Wow! Karen Woods has delivered a gripping read full of grit and with characters to keep you turning the pages. And that ending! I didn’t see that coming at all. Loved it. 5 huge stars from me.’Caz Finlay, author of the Bad Blood series

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Book Synopsis''Breaking Bad meets City of God'' Roberto Saviano, author of GomorrahHUSBAND. This is the story of an ordinary man who became the king of the largest slum in Rio, the head of a drug cartel and Brazil's most notorious criminal. FATHER. A man who tried to bring welfare and justice to a playground of gang culture and destitution, while everyone around him drew guns and partied. DRUG LORD. It's a story of gold-hunters and evangelical pastors, bent police and rich-kid addicts, politicians and drug lords and the battle for the beautiful but damned city of Rio. MOST WANTED CRIMINAL.Trade ReviewBreaking Bad meets City of God -- Roberto Savianofascinating dive into Brazil’s terrifying underworld, where the stakes are all or nothing...Nemesis reads like a fast-paced thriller -- James Hider * The Times *A fast-paced crime story that paints a vivid picture of life in the sprawling favelas -- Joe Leahy * Financial Times *A thrillingly vivid picture of another Rio… [Nemesis] confirms Glenny’s status as one of the most daring and original true-crime writers of today... A rich and riveting book -- Francis Wheen * Mail on Sunday *Glenny doesn’t just write books; he lives them -- John Kampfner * Guardian *gripping narrative of cocaine and slaughter -- Andreas Campomar * Spectator *A magnificent work of reportage by turns raw and courageous -- Ian Thomson * Evening Standard *A dynastic 50-year Shakespearean sweep of organised crime that manages to be both intimate and alarming -- John Kampfner * Observer *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA fascinating read -- Seán O'Rourke * Today with Seán O'Rourke, RTÉ *Explosive * Irish Sunday Mirror *

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