True Organized Crime

Just as Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations did for the world of food, Dopeworld is an intoxicating journey into the world of drugs. From the cocaine farms in South America to the streets of Manila, Dopeworld traces the emergence of psychoactive substances and our intimate relationship with them. As a former drug dealer turned subversive scholar, with unparalleled access to drug lords, cartel leaders, street dealers, and government officials, journalist Niko Vorobyov attempts to shine a light on the dark underbelly of the drug world.

El narco inunda el país...excepto la Ciudad de México. Por increíble que parezca, ése ha sido el discurso oficial de todos los gobernantes que ha tenido la capital del país. Ningún jefe de gobierno, nunca, ha aceptado que los cárteles campean en el corazón de México. Este libro los refuta y evidencia el problema.

In the 1840s, the Donnelly family immigrates from Ireland to the British province of Canada. Almost immediately problems develop as the patriarch of the family is sent to the Kingston Penitentiary for manslaughter, leaving his wife to raise their eight children on her own. The children are raised in an incredibly violent community and cultivate a devoted loyalty to their mother and siblings, which often leads to problems with the law and those outside of the family.

How much do you know about the organized crime involvement of Irish descendants in the United States? How much do you know of the impact of British rule in Ireland? Religious conflicts? The backing of parliamentary and paramilitary groups by criminal gangs? Gun-running and drug-smuggling? A History of Irish Organized Crime is the perfect book to help you develop your knowledge and learn about social history, including the current impact of Brexit on the Irish border “backstop”.

In 1988, Alphabet City burned with heroin, radicalism, and antipolice sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop in the most high-voltage neighborhood in Manhattan, Detective Sergeant Mike Codella earned the nickname “Rambo” from the local dealers, as well as a $50,000 bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets.

In a remarkably personal and intimate story, Jerry Tillinghast talks about his life and the choices he made. Jerry discusses battling alongside his brothers on the streets of Providence, enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, fighting in Vietnam and becoming a victim of the politics of that war, returning to Providence as an angry young man, and his choice to hang with the wise guys.

A true story of law, betrayal, and survival in Ukraine’s Wild East. The Steel Barons follows the harrowing descent of Jack Parker, a thirty-year-old American lawyer sent to Kyiv in the early 1990s to negotiate a multimillion-dollar telecom deal. It should have been a fast track to equity partnership in one of Manhattan’s most prestigious law firms. Instead, one reckless night lands him in a Soviet-era venereal disease clinic — and from there, everything begins to unravel. Abandoned by his firm, hunted by mob-connected investors, and betrayed by his own government, Jack finds himself ...

From avocado farmers to masked avengers to Mexico's deadliest criminals, dive inside the story of the cartel that took over Mexico and whose drugs kill thousands of Americans. For over a decade, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG) has sought to conquer Mexico piece by piece. Even by cartel standards, the CJNG uses violence constantly to expand its ruthless criminal empire. Fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, heroin, oil, tequila, avocados, it will turn a profit from anything it can. This authoritative guide offers an unprecedented look into the CJNG’s operations, ...

The Cali Cartel was the most powerful drug organization that Colombia has ever seen. It financed the hunt for Pablo Escobar and controlled the majority of the global cocaine trade. The two main capos, Gilberto and his brother, Miguel, ran a multibillion dollar drug empire like a corporation. They bribed dozens of judges, politicians, military, police officers—and even presidents. This is Miguel’s son’s jaw-dropping autobiography. It starts with one of the biggest assassination attempts in Cali’s history.

From Portland to Pakistan, Colombia to the Caribbean, Fredericks was working hard and playing harder, ripping and running, buying drugs undercover, driving fast cars, arresting felons and fugitives, busting redneck meth labs in remote Oregon sites, raiding clandestine cocaine labs in dense Colombian jungles, training with US Army special forces, investigating heroin traffickers in Pakistan, and working internationally to dismantle worldwide drug distribution organizations.

New York City, 1972: Bobby Comfort and Sammy "the Arab" Nalo were highly skilled jewel thieves who specialized in robbing luxury Manhattan hotels. (They once robbed Sophia Loren's suite, relieving the Italian actress of over $1 million in gems.) With the blessing of the Lucchese crime family, their next plot targeted the posh Pierre Hotel - host to kings and queens, presidents and aldermen, and the wealthiest of the wealthy.

As the second installment in the acclaimed Shadows of the Past series, The Silent Witness combines meticulous research with a captivating narrative style. Listeners will gain new insights into Mary’s life, the public’s obsession with her death, and how her story influenced the literary world, including Poe’s classic The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.

On 9 June 2003, a 43-year-old man named Magadien Wentzel walked out of Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. Jonny Steinberg met Wentzel in prison in the dying months of 2002. By the time Wentzel was released, he and Steinberg had spent over 50 hours discussing his life experiences. The Number is an account of their conversations and of Steinberg's journeys to the places and people of Wentzel's past.

The diminutive Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known universally by his nickname of "El Chapo" ("Shorty" in Spanish), is the highest-profile narco-terrorist since the demise of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s. Loera began work at the age of nine as a gomero—a farmhand harvesting opium—and as he grew up he shot and murdered his way to the top, strewing corpses in his wake.

Belle Gunness was a farmer, a mother, and a murderer who lured victims to her Indiana farm with promises of love and opportunity. But behind the idyllic rural façade lay a gruesome reality—a farm where dreams were shattered, lives were stolen, and secrets were buried. Dubbed the "Black Widow of La Porte," Belle’s chilling crimes have haunted history for over a century. Whispers from the Murder Farm peels back the layers of this twisted case, exploring Belle’s calculated methods, the psychology behind her crimes, and the failures of law enforcement that allowed her to evade justice.

Author Orlando (Ori) Spado honestly recants his humble beginnings from the small town of Rome in upstate New York, to becoming known as "The Mob Boss of Hollywood." A candid account documenting his fall from a well-known Hollywood fixer mixing with A list celebrities to serving 62 months in Federal prison, and ultimately making a determined comeback.

When billions poured into the neglected east London borough hosting the 2012 Olympics, a turf war broke out between crime families for control of a now valuable strip of land. Using violence, guile and corruption, one gangster, the Long Fella, emerged as a true untouchable. A team of local detectives made it their business to take him on until Scotland Yard threw them under the bus and the business of putting on 'the greatest show on earth' won the day.

To infiltrate international drug cartels, he had to become a player...‘Undercover’: The true story behind Operation Julie, one of Britain's largest drug busts and how the same detective infiltrated a cartel planning to smuggle cocaine into Britain. Forget ‘Breaking Bad’ this is the extraordinary story of the 1970s Welsh LSD ring that supplied the world, told by a cop in deepest cover on the case. In the dim chaos of a Liverpool nightclub, a sharp question cut through the noise: “Are you guys cops?” For Steve Jackson, the words chilled him to the bone.

Luck of the Devil follows Jack Collins fresh out of the Navy in 1969 as he heads to Miami. There, he falls into the hippie culture of the day. Looking to score free drugs for himself and his friends, he starts dealing blow and pills on the side. Jack eventually grows into the "bigger" game of pills and cocaine as he establishes relationships with the Colombians.

From Pulitzer Prize winner Teresa Carpenter comes the captivating true-crime story of a Mafia moll - “the female counterpart of the pseudonymous Henry Hill, the star of Wiseguy.... An insider’s view of mob life that is by turns comic and chilling” (Los Angeles Times).