In a ranch south of Texas, the man known as The Executioner dumps five hundred body parts in metal barrels. In Brazil's biggest city, a mysterious prisoner orders hit-men to gun down forty-one police officers and prison guards in two days. In southern Mexico, a crystal meth maker is venerated as a saint while imposing Old Testament justice on his enemies. A new kind of criminal kingpin has arisen: part CEO, part terrorist, and part rock star, unleashing guerrilla attacks, strong-arming governments and taking over much of the world's trade in narcotics, guns and humans. Who are these new masters of death? What personal qualities and life experiences have made them into such bloodthirsty leaders of men? What do they represent and stand for? What has happened in the Americas to allow them to grow and flourish? Author of the critically acclaimed El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency, Ioan Grillo has covered Latin America since 2001, and gained access to every level of the cartel chain-of-command in what he calls the new battlefields of the Americas. Moving between militia-controlled ghettos and the halls of top policy-makers, Grillo provides a new and disturbing understanding of a war that has spiralled out of control - one that people across the political spectrum need to confront now. Gangster Warlords is the first definitive account of the crime wars now wracking Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Ioan Grillo Bücher
Diese Autorin ist Journalistin, Schriftstellerin und Fernsehproduzentin, die seit Beginn der 2000er Jahre über Lateinamerika für führende globale Nachrichtenmedien berichtet. Ihre Arbeit taucht tief in die komplexe Welt der mexikanischen Drogenkartelle ein und verfolgt ihren Einfluss von kugelhagelübersäten Straßen bis in die Bergregionen, in denen illegale Pflanzen angebaut werden. Sie erforscht nicht nur ihren immensen Reichtum und ihre schwer fassbaren Operationen, sondern auch die brutalen Auswirkungen des Drogenkriegs auf die mexikanische Gesellschaft und die internationalen Beziehungen, und fordert eine offene Diskussion über die Drogenpolitik in Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten. Darüber hinaus befasst sie sich mit anderen drängenden regionalen Themen wie Naturkatastrophen, politischen Konflikten und Migration und beleuchtet gelegentlich ihre Leidenschaft für Musik, insbesondere für lateinamerikanischen Hip-Hop.
A searing investigation into the enormous black market for firearms, essential to cartels and gangs in the drug trade. Guns from America reach more than 130 countries, and inundate Mexico, with over 200,000 guns every year crossing the border and arming the drug cartels. In this groundbreaking new work of investigative journalism, master of reportage Ioan Grillo delves into the enormous black market for firearms in the Americas: he travels to gun manufacturers, strolls the aisles of gun shows and gun shops, hangs out on Baltimore street corners, talks to federal agents who have infiltrated gangs, and visits the ATF gun tracing centre in West Virginia. Along the way, Grillo lays bare the many ways that guns slip through the legal cracks and into the hands of criminals, fuelling violence among Mexico's powerful cartels and beyond. At a time when debates around gun control are rife, this gripping exposé draws a startling a connection between guns and the global drug trade, revealing them to be key accessories in our epidemics of addiction
The world has watched, stunned, the bloodshed in Mexico. Forty thousand murdered since 2006; police chiefs shot within hours of taking office; mass graves comparable to those of civil wars; car bombs shattering storefronts; headless corpses heaped in town squares. And it is all because a few Americans are getting high. Or is it part of a worldwide shadow economy that threatens Mexico's democracy? The United States throws Black Hawk helicopters, DEA assistance, and lots of money at the problem. But in secret, Washington is at a loss. Who are these mysterious figures who threaten Mexico's democracy? What is El Narco?El Narco is not a gang; it is a movement and an industry drawing in hundreds of thousands, from bullet-riddled barrios to marijuana-covered mountains. The conflict spawned by El Narco has given rise to paramilitary death squads battling from Guatemala to the Texas border (and sometimes beyond). In this "propulsive ... high-octane" book ("Publishers Weekly"), Ioan Grillo draws the first definitive portrait of Mexico's cartels and how they have radically transformed in the past decade.