The Last Narco: Inside the Hunt for El Chapo, the World's Most Wanted Drug Lord

by Malcolm Beith

Overview

“Malcolm Beith risked life and limb to tell the inside story of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, Mexico’s notorious drug capo.” —George W. Grayson, author of Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?
 
The dense hills of Sinaloa, Mexico, were home to the most powerful drug lord since Pablo Escobar: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Guzman was among the world’s ten most wanted men and also appeared on Forbes magazine’s 2009 billionaire list. With his massive wealth, his army of professional killers, and a network of informants that reached into the highest levels of government, catching Guzman was once considered impossible
 
Newly isolated by infighting amongst the cartels, and with Mexican and DEA authorities closing in, El Chapo was vulnerable as never before. Newsweek correspondent Malcolm Beith had spent years reporting on the drug wars and followed the chase with full access to senior officials and exclusive interviews with soldiers and drug traffickers in the region, including members of Guzman’s cartel. The Last Narco combines fearless reporting with the story of El Chapo’s legendary rise from a poor farming family to the “capo” of the world’s largest drug empire.
 
“The Last Narco gracefully captures the heroic struggle of those who dare to stand up to the cartels, and the ways those cartels have tragically corrupted every aspect of Mexican law enforcement.” —Laura Bickford, producer, Traffic

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802196224
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/07/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	199,596
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Malcolm Beith is a writer based in Mexico City. He has covered the drug war for Newsweek, and has contributed to Foreign Policy, World Politics Review and Jane's Intelligence Weekly. He has also reported from Iraq, Haiti, and Colombia.

Table of Contents

The Narcos ix

Glossary of Terms xiii

Prologe xv

1 The Great Escape 1

2 The Blame Game 20

3 From Gomeros to Gods 25

4 The Godfather 40

5 Chapo's Rise 56

6 "Breaking the Neck of Destiny's 80

7 The General 91

8 The War 102

9 Land Grab 117

10 Law, Disorder 123

11 The End of the Alliance 139

12 The Ghost 151

13 The New Wave 159

14 United States of Fear 175

15 Sinaloa Inc. 185

16 The End Game 196

Postscript 214

Afterword 221

Sources 229

Index 265

Acknowledgements 271

Editorial Reviews

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera (a.k.a. El Chapo) is a legend in Mexican drug lore with a reputation as a charming, dangerous vice lord who effectively ran his operation at the peak of the violent drug battles over a decade. Using secret Mexican and American government records and interviews with officials, drug traffickers, and members of El Chapo's cartel, Beith, a journalist covering the Mexican drug war for Newsweek, provides an in-your-face account of the poor peasant boy who rose to become the most feared and ruthless of the drug lords, flaunting his wealth and power while eluding capture from a massive manhunt. Even when El Chapo's capture was announced, officials knew he would escape--and he did, returning to the mountains where troops couldn't touch him. Courageous, gritty, and gripping. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

All of Mexico is El Chapo country. His rise parallels that of Pablo Escobar.” — Newsweek

“Malcolm Beith’s book is a virtual nonstop chase.” — Albuquerque Journal

“ The Last Narco is a brave and terrific headlong journalistic trek into the dangerous, and immensely relevant, terrain of drug trafficking in Mexico, and the life and times of its foremost practitioner.” —Sam Quinones, author of True Tales from Another Mexico

“ The Last Narco gracefully captures the heroic struggle of those who dare to stand up to the cartels, and the ways those cartels have tragically corrupted every aspect of Mexican law enforcement.” —Laura Bickford, producer, Traffic

“Malcolm Beith slaps our faces with our ignorance. We barely know Mexico, and understand even less of its major industry, drugs. In The Last Narco , he gives us a look into a place our government either denies or lies about. This time you can run, but you can’t hide.” —Charles Bowden, author of Murder City

“No ‘war on terror’ was ever as terrifying as the ferocious wars of the drug lords in Mexico. In The Last Narco, Malcolm Beith courageously takes us to the front lines in the heart of the Mexican badlands—and also right on the border of the United States. This is a threat to homeland security that is too often ignored by the press and public, and this is the book that brings it all into focus. A must read.” —Christopher Dickey, author of Securing the City: Inside America’s Best Counterterror Force—the NYPD

“Malcolm Beith risked life and limb to tell the inside story of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, Mexico’s notorious drug capo. A novelist could not have presented a more intriguing or compelling tale of corruption, intimidation, murder, blood feuds, life-and-death negotiations, and the entrepreneurial skill of a near-mythic figure whom Forbes Magazine named one of the world’s richest men. Beith’s superb book corroborates the cliché that fact is stranger than fiction.” —George W. Grayson, professor of government at the College of William & Mary and the author of Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?

“He is the last of the Mohicans. All of the other big cartels have been decapitated. That is why they want him so badly.” —Jorge Chabat, Mexico City Law Enforcement Expert

“A virtual nonstop chase.” — Trading Markets

From the Publisher