Summary of Ioan Grillo's El Narco

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 I spoke to Gonzalo in a prison cell he shares with eight others on a sunny Tuesday morning in Ciudad Juárez. He had spent seventeen years working as a soldier, kidnapper, and murderer for Mexican drug gangs. In that time, he took the lives of many, many more people than he can count.

#2 I visited a jail block mass before I sat down with Gonzalo. The pastor, a convicted drug trafficker, mixed stories of ancient Jerusalem with his hard-core street experiences, using slang and addressing the flock as the homeys from the barrio.

#3 The path from policeman to villain is not uncommon in Mexico. Major drug lords, such as the 1980s Boss of Bosses Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, began as officers of the law.

#4 The Mexican Drug War is a perfect example of how criminal insurgency can spread across the world. The conflict can be everywhere and nowhere, with millions of tourists sunning themselves on Cancún’s Caribbean beaches oblivious that anything is amiss.