Author, Norman Parker served a 24 year jail sentence for murder. On his release, wanting to experience life to the fullest, he took advantage of his writing skills to become a journalist for lads mags and the Daily Express and set about tackling the niche market of visiting dangerous places…
I read this book really quickly- it was enticing and a good tale. Gypsy Jane is something of a crazy phenomenon who rocked the London underworld with some pretty brutal firsthand tales. It didn’t take much for the Gran to pay a visit to any dissidents and she’d be brandishing…
View More Review: Gypsy Jane – by Jane Lee with David Jarvis
This is a solid well written piece of investigative journalism, exploring the history and present situation and indeed future of the War on Drugs. Hari traces back the war to a zealous prohibition agent, Harry Anslinger, who carved out world policy in this fight back in 1930s America. It’s very…
View More Review: Chasing the Scream – The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs – by Johann HariThis is an explosive book, real revelations from a sicario or hitman for the Juarez cartel in Mexico. In the murky world of narcotics enforcers are employed by the cartels to assassinate and extort owed money from victims. This sicario was trained as a policeman with this training funded by…
View More Review: El Sicario – Confessions of a Cartel Hit Man – by Molly Molloy and Charles BowdenMuch has been said about Pablo Escobar, who was the richest criminal in history and the head of the Medellin cartel in Colombia. This book is written from the heart and is an intimate portrait of the great man as remembered by one of his closest associates and a member…
View More Review: Escobar: The Inside Story of Pablo Escobar, the World’s Most Powerful Criminal. as Told by His Brother Roberto EscobarIf the Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel can be regarded as the Henry Fords of the Drugs business then the Cali cartel with its corporate business acumen can certainly be regarded as the McDonalds. This well-written, detailed biography tracks the rise and fall of the most successful drug cartel in history.…
View More Review: Drug Lords – The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel – by Ron Chepesiuk
This is the second of Ioan Grillo’s books that I have read and I found this volume equally as good as my first encounter with this talented British journalist. Gangster Warlords focuses on 4 separate crime gangs across the Americas. For each group we identify leaders, politics, often brutal and…
View More Review: Gangster Warlords – Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America – by Ioan GrilloThis Mexican author, Elmer Mendoza, is about as vibrant a writer of fiction that I have encountered since Hemingway. A truly unique flowing style that is amazing to digest. The hero of the book is policeman Edgar ‘Lefty’ Mendieta. He is a drunken womaniser and the tale weaves in his…
View More Review: Silver Bullets – by Élmer Mendoza
When you see the title ‘The Cartel’ you might immediately imagine a book about Colombian or Mexican drug lords. Yet, this book covers a 30 year history of a homegrown cartel, based in Liverpool. Back in the 1970s a pioneering Fred the Rat grouped together his criminal comrades and they…
View More Review: The Cartel – The Inside Story of Britain’s Biggest Drugs Gang – by Graham Johnson
The author is exploring the impact of local culture on the artistic output of Narcoculture in the form of literature and art in two specific par excellence Narco cities in Latin America. We are introduced to the Culichis of Culiacán in Mexicos Sinaloa and they can be contrasted with the…
View More Review: Narrating Narcos: Culiacán and Medellín – by Gabriela Polit Dueñas
Dr. Joey Whitfield, a Research Fellow at Cardiff University, explores prison writing and the effects of the ‘War on Drugs’ in Latin America. His forthcoming book analyzes the blurred lines between political and criminal prisoners and discusses the impact of cultural productions like films and narco-novelas on societal perceptions of drug-related violence and policy.
View More The Cultural Politics of the ‘War on Drugs’ in Latin America: Prohibition and Beyond? – By Dr Joey Whitfield, Cardiff University, 22.11.17Jorge Salcedo signed up to the Cali cartel in order to lead a mission to assassinate Pablo Escobar, head of the rival Medellín cartel and, in Jorge’s eyes, a clear and present danger to the people of Colombia. This ex Colombian army professional was a security expert and although the…
View More Review: At The Devil’s Table – Inside the Fall of the Cali Cartel – the World’s Biggest Crime Syndicate – by William C. RempelThis is an enthralling, well-researched book, that reveals many unknown new facts about the global cocaine industry. The book opens with a chapter focussing on the USA, the biggest market for the Cocaine industry, where 66% of Cocaine users exist. We then enter into the producing and transit phase of…
View More Review: Cocaine Nation – How The White Trade Took Over The World – by Tom FeilingThe subject of the book makes it appealing and gives you the desire to part with the £6 or so it costs on Amazon. El Chapo is a buzz subject a folk-hero, a modern legend. He is head of the Sinaloa Cartel and in charge of one of the most…
View More Review – The Legend of El Chapo Guzman – by J.D.Rockefeller
The author is a military expert and the phrase he coins to determine Mexico’s narcotics problem is a ‘mosaic cartel war’. This book analyses in detail the various cartels that are present in Mexico that operate in a highly competitive, highly profitable, highly illegal, immensely violent global industry. The Mexican…
View More Review: Cartels At War – by Paul Rexton Can