Drug warrior: inside the hunt for El Chapo and the rise of America's opioid crisis

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Average Rating
Publisher
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Publication Date
2019.
Language
English

Description

DEA Agent Jack Riley, "[Chicago's] most famous federal agent since the days of The Untouchables" (-Rolling Stone)tells the inside story of his 30-year hunt for the drug kingpin known as El Chapo, and reveals the true causes of the American opioid epidemic. Jack Riley, grandson of a Chicago cop known for using his fists, was born to be a drug warrior. Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, who farmed marijuana and opium poppies as a teenager in Mexico, was born to be a drug lord. Their worlds collided when Riley, a career special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, was promoted to lead the fight against Chapo on the border at El Paso.Drug Warrior is the story of Riley's decades-long hunt for the world's most wanted drug lord, set against the rise of modern international drug trafficking, and America's spiraling opioid epidemic. Jack Riley started his career as an undercover street agent in Chicago busting small-time dealers. By the time he worked his way up to second in command of the DEA-a post few field agents ever reach-he had overseen every major mission to capture foreign drug kingpins since the 1990s, and had witnessed first-hand how El Chapo changed the game. As brilliant as he was lethal, Chapo not only decimated his competition, he foresaw Americans' dependence on opioids and heroin, and manipulated supply to increase demand. Riley's story culminates as he and the DEA win their greatest victory-the capture and extradition of his long-time nemesis-and Chapo faces his darkest fear: U.S. justice. A riveting memoir of life inside the drug wars, and a never-before-seen glimpse of the inner-workings of the DEA, Drug Warrior is a critical examination of how America's opioid crisis came to be, and the extraordinary people fighting it.

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Contributors
Barry, Brett Narrator
Riley, Jack Author
Weiss, Mitch author, Author
ISBN
9781602865839
9781789460469
9781549167720

Table of Contents

From the Book - First edition.

Prologue: the chase, 2007
Glory days, 1986
The mentor
Good cops bad cops
The brothers
No-name office
Back with a vengeance
Get shorty
Saint Louis blues, 2000
New sheriff in town, 2007
The stark truth
Homeward bound
Border town
Public enemy number one
Long distance runaround, 2014
The suit
Shorty redux
Epilogue: Wrigley Field.

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Published Reviews

Publisher's Weekly Review

Retired DEA agent Riley reviews his three decades of combating drug traffickers in this gripping memoir. Riley was at the forefront of the efforts to apprehend Mexican drug lord JoaquA-n "El Chapo" GuzmA¡n Loera, currently on trial in New York for drug trafficking. Riley joined the DEA in 1985 and soon began working undercover, where he quickly realized the futility of racking up arrest statistics that removed a street dealer from a corner for a short while, but did nothing to address the larger organization supplying that dealer. His successes led to more and more responsibility within the DEA, where he pushed for interagency efforts to target entire cartels. In 1995, he heard about El Chapo, a Mexican crime boss who stood out because the Colombians paid him in drugs to distribute their cocaine within the U.S. Other Mexican drug lords soon followed El Chapo's lead, and with their own supply of cocaine, they were able to push the Colombians out of the U.S. market. Over the course of decades, Riley zealously pursued El Chapo, efforts that eventually paid off with his most recent apprehension in 2016 and his extradition to the U.S. Riley doesn't regard the war on drugs as close to over, noting that law enforcement can't be solely responsible for combating widespread drug addiction. This accessible look at the dangerous work of the men and women of the DEA deserves a wide audience. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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Library Journal Review

The former acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Riley, with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Weiss, recounts his dogged 32-year pursuit of the man most responsible for America's drug epidemic: Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. As one might expect from an officer more comfortable in the street than behind a desk, Riley effectively and straightforwardly describes how Guzmán stoked demand to increase profit from his supply and used violence, bribery, and planning to control and defend his operations, all while staying one step ahead of his would-be captors. Riley also comments (repeatedly but justifiably) on the frustration felt by the DEA owing to the ignorance of lawmakers and politicians who didn't grasp the scale of harm Guzmán and his cartel were causing. The assertion that continuous interagency communication is critical to the success of law enforcement seems patently obvious, and readers will sympathize with Riley's efforts to drive this point home to those in power. VERDICT For readers who enjoy true tales of heroic good guys chasing evil bad guys and fans of the podcast Chapo: Kingpin on Trial.-Ricardo Laskaris, York Univ. Lib., Toronto © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

A leading Drug Enforcement Agency officer recounts his long battle against South American cartels and a Mexican kingpin.As Riley's memoir opens, he's on the run, being chased on a Texas highway into New Mexico by hit men in the employ of Joaqun Guzmn Loera, better known as El Chapo. He was outgunned, but somehow he got out of it, whereupon he turns back the clock to the beginning of his career. After turning down an offer from the more prestigious FBI, he joined the DEA and went to war against the Colombian cartel, then personified by Pablo Escobar, whose "real-life narrative was straight out of a Hollywood gangster movie." Escobar was also a smart businessman who knew a market when he saw it, flooding the insatiable United States with cocaine. By Riley's lights, El Chapo was worse yet, a vicious criminal who conducted at least some of his enterprise from the safety of a Mexican prison. The author notes that El Chapo wasn't just involved in cocaine and marijuana, but was a leading purveyor of opioids: "While I believe that many are responsible for our nation's drug crisis, including unscrupulous doctors, pharmacies, wholesale drug distributors, drug companies, and the banking industry, none played a bigger criminal role than El Chapo." Flushing him out of hiding after his escape from prison and getting him extradited to the U.S. was no easy matter, but it provides a satisfying payoff to Riley's eventful story. There's a by-the-numbers aspect to the narrative, including the requisite tough-guy language (the bad guys are "scumbags" and "jagoffs," among other choice epithets), as well as complaints about the typical bureaucratic hassles involved in honoring the Fourth Amendment. But Riley is an equal-opportunity despiser of those who got in the way, including actor Sean Penn ("an exploitative asshole") and Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz ("This dickhead had no idea how hard I worked, or even what DEA agents did").A sturdy, unadorned tale of true crime and its foes. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Library Journal Reviews

With the help of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Weiss, Riley, the highest ranking career special agent at the DEA, recalls his efforts to bring down notorious drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera and discusses what's really behind America's opioid epidemic.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.
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Library Journal Reviews

The former acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Riley, with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Weiss, recounts his dogged 32-year pursuit of the man most responsible for America's drug epidemic: Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. As one might expect from an officer more comfortable in the street than behind a desk, Riley effectively and straightforwardly describes how Guzmán stoked demand to increase profit from his supply and used violence, bribery, and planning to control and defend his operations, all while staying one step ahead of his would-be captors. Riley also comments (repeatedly but justifiably) on the frustration felt by the DEA owing to the ignorance of lawmakers and politicians who didn't grasp the scale of harm Guzmán and his cartel were causing. The assertion that continuous interagency communication is critical to the success of law enforcement seems patently obvious, and readers will sympathize with Riley's efforts to drive this point home to those in power. VERDICT For readers who enjoy true tales of heroic good guys chasing evil bad guys and fans of the podcast Chapo: Kingpin on Trial.—Ricardo Laskaris, York Univ. Lib., Toronto

Copyright 2019 Library Journal.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

Retired DEA agent Riley reviews his three decades of combating drug traffickers in this gripping memoir. Riley was at the forefront of the efforts to apprehend Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, currently on trial in New York for drug trafficking. Riley joined the DEA in 1985 and soon began working undercover, where he quickly realized the futility of racking up arrest statistics that removed a street dealer from a corner for a short while, but did nothing to address the larger organization supplying that dealer. His successes led to more and more responsibility within the DEA, where he pushed for interagency efforts to target entire cartels. In 1995, he heard about El Chapo, a Mexican crime boss who stood out because the Colombians paid him in drugs to distribute their cocaine within the U.S. Other Mexican drug lords soon followed El Chapo's lead, and with their own supply of cocaine, they were able to push the Colombians out of the U.S. market. Over the course of decades, Riley zealously pursued El Chapo, efforts that eventually paid off with his most recent apprehension in 2016 and his extradition to the U.S. Riley doesn't regard the war on drugs as close to over, noting that law enforcement can't be solely responsible for combating widespread drug addiction. This accessible look at the dangerous work of the men and women of the DEA deserves a wide audience. (Feb.)

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.
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