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Takedown: A Small-Town Cop's Battle Against the Hells Angels and the Nation's Biggest Drug Gang: A Small-Town Cop’s Battle Against the Hells Angels and the Nation’s Biggest Drug Gang
Jeff Buck thought he'd seen it all. Twenty years working undercover in the netherworld of drugs had left him burned out and grateful to assume the quiet job of police chief in the small town of Reminderville, Ohio. That is, until a simple domestic assault case turns out to have links to the murder of a drug runner in upstate New York and a syndicate smuggling billions of dollars in drugs across the U.S.-Canada border. As Buck reluctantly plunges back into his old world of death and deceit, he uncovers a complex chain linking the Hells Angels to the Russian Mafia in a plot to use Native American tribal land to smuggle their deadly wares into the United States. From grow houses set ablaze in Quebec to the insular St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation, from board rooms and biker wars to the frozen rivers that serve as private turnpikes for the drug gangs, Buck opposes a serpentine criminal enterprise that has every reason to want to end his crusade in violence and bloodshed. Ultimately, his efforts lead to an unprecedented slew of indictments on both sides of the border and prison terms for even the kingpins, toppling an empire once deemed invincible. Takedown spans the period of December 2007 to June 2009.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 8, 2016
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April 17, 2022
This book was not good at all. More substantive review to follow…
Here is the simple review. This book starts out with "This is a true story, though some names and details have been changed." which didn't give me a good feeling out of the gate. I feel like if you have to change some of the details, it doesn't bode well. I wasn't disappointed because I went into it feeling like it wasn't going to be good. I've got some background in law enforcement and very little of what Buck talks about rings true from a law enforcement stand-point. Not worth the read as written.
More detailed review below:
As stated, I've got law enforcement experience and, in fact, worked with some of the guys Buck talks about in the book (although he did change their names) and had some experience with a similar case just before this one took place. I've also spoken to several people that worked on the case he writes about and none of them speak highly of Buck. Generally, I'm told he was a nice enough guy but, as you can tell from reading the book, he has a bit of a high opinion of himself.
First off, I did a little research into Buck's career and Reminderville, Ohio. It is classified as a city but its population is less than the village that serves as the County Seat in Franklin County, NY where some of events of this story took place. Reminderville is basically a bedroom community and Buck seems to have spent his entire career in Reminderville, eventually becoming Chief of Police. That's all well and good, any service is good service, if you serve honorably. But as a police officer, even a narcotics officer, in a small town police department, you don't have jurisdiction over investigations outside your city/town/village. I understand he was sworn in as a member of the task force, making him essentially a federal officer, but that doesn't put him in charge of anything, he's a worker bee, just like the vast majority of the officers on the task force.
He inserts himself into the investigation in the neighboring city of Beachwood, after the domestic incident. Most police officers/investigators are willing to accept help, especially if someone has experience with something that is needed. Bottom line here is that he wouldn't have been involved in any of this if Beachwood and a whole lot of other departments/agencies didn't want to let him in.
Buck heads to New York and immediately starts talking about St. Lawrence County and the Akwesasne Reservation like he knows the area. He doesn't!! St. Lawrence County is no different than any other County in this Country. There are tons of great people and there are a lot of turds!! The way he writes about the County as a redneck hole with nothing but toothless, ignorant criminals and morons, is pretty pathetic. Simple research would enlighten him as to the actual population and demographics. As far as the Reservation goes...not everyone on the Rez smuggles to make a living. Just like this Country, and every State in this great Union, there are great people on the Rez and there are not so great people. Nuff said about that.
Back to the simple research. This is the kind of stuff that pisses me off. Just a couple examples of where he could have actually gotten something right. Open a simple map, or even google the area. He frequently says Franklin County is south of St. Lawrence County. There is literally no part of Franklin County that sits south of St. Lawrence County. He says the Town of Stockholm is just outside the Reservation. Stockholm is two townships away from the reservation. He describes Hogansburg as a Hamlet a mile from the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation (Akwasasne). Wrong. Hogansburg is the the Rez, just another name for it. Simple research would have reminded him of some things I assume he would have known while working the case.
What's with going to Florida and essentially blackmailing the defense attorney into writing your department a check? What the hell was that all about? Why all the made up conversations between all the people involved in the case? There is no way he knows what Alan Jacobs said to a Hell's Angels guy in Canada decades ago. He doesn't know any of the conversations he wasn't involved in and I'd be shocked if he interviewed any of the parties to get their versions of the conversations. Way too dramatized.
Anyway, bottom line, this book was written by an ego-maniac who thinks he took down cartels and biker gangs. He's delusional, at best, and "Dope Ghost" is the best you could come up with? What he did was take the experience he had and blow it way out of proportion and downplay everyone else's contributions. He missed an opportunity to write the same book as a Fictional novel, which is essentially what it was. If he had written it as fiction, with a small town cop as the protagonist trying to take down some drug dealers, it wouldn't have been as bad. Unfortunately he didn't and it reads like an ego-maniac's memoir.
Here is the simple review. This book starts out with "This is a true story, though some names and details have been changed." which didn't give me a good feeling out of the gate. I feel like if you have to change some of the details, it doesn't bode well. I wasn't disappointed because I went into it feeling like it wasn't going to be good. I've got some background in law enforcement and very little of what Buck talks about rings true from a law enforcement stand-point. Not worth the read as written.
More detailed review below:
As stated, I've got law enforcement experience and, in fact, worked with some of the guys Buck talks about in the book (although he did change their names) and had some experience with a similar case just before this one took place. I've also spoken to several people that worked on the case he writes about and none of them speak highly of Buck. Generally, I'm told he was a nice enough guy but, as you can tell from reading the book, he has a bit of a high opinion of himself.
First off, I did a little research into Buck's career and Reminderville, Ohio. It is classified as a city but its population is less than the village that serves as the County Seat in Franklin County, NY where some of events of this story took place. Reminderville is basically a bedroom community and Buck seems to have spent his entire career in Reminderville, eventually becoming Chief of Police. That's all well and good, any service is good service, if you serve honorably. But as a police officer, even a narcotics officer, in a small town police department, you don't have jurisdiction over investigations outside your city/town/village. I understand he was sworn in as a member of the task force, making him essentially a federal officer, but that doesn't put him in charge of anything, he's a worker bee, just like the vast majority of the officers on the task force.
He inserts himself into the investigation in the neighboring city of Beachwood, after the domestic incident. Most police officers/investigators are willing to accept help, especially if someone has experience with something that is needed. Bottom line here is that he wouldn't have been involved in any of this if Beachwood and a whole lot of other departments/agencies didn't want to let him in.
Buck heads to New York and immediately starts talking about St. Lawrence County and the Akwesasne Reservation like he knows the area. He doesn't!! St. Lawrence County is no different than any other County in this Country. There are tons of great people and there are a lot of turds!! The way he writes about the County as a redneck hole with nothing but toothless, ignorant criminals and morons, is pretty pathetic. Simple research would enlighten him as to the actual population and demographics. As far as the Reservation goes...not everyone on the Rez smuggles to make a living. Just like this Country, and every State in this great Union, there are great people on the Rez and there are not so great people. Nuff said about that.
Back to the simple research. This is the kind of stuff that pisses me off. Just a couple examples of where he could have actually gotten something right. Open a simple map, or even google the area. He frequently says Franklin County is south of St. Lawrence County. There is literally no part of Franklin County that sits south of St. Lawrence County. He says the Town of Stockholm is just outside the Reservation. Stockholm is two townships away from the reservation. He describes Hogansburg as a Hamlet a mile from the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation (Akwasasne). Wrong. Hogansburg is the the Rez, just another name for it. Simple research would have reminded him of some things I assume he would have known while working the case.
What's with going to Florida and essentially blackmailing the defense attorney into writing your department a check? What the hell was that all about? Why all the made up conversations between all the people involved in the case? There is no way he knows what Alan Jacobs said to a Hell's Angels guy in Canada decades ago. He doesn't know any of the conversations he wasn't involved in and I'd be shocked if he interviewed any of the parties to get their versions of the conversations. Way too dramatized.
Anyway, bottom line, this book was written by an ego-maniac who thinks he took down cartels and biker gangs. He's delusional, at best, and "Dope Ghost" is the best you could come up with? What he did was take the experience he had and blow it way out of proportion and downplay everyone else's contributions. He missed an opportunity to write the same book as a Fictional novel, which is essentially what it was. If he had written it as fiction, with a small town cop as the protagonist trying to take down some drug dealers, it wouldn't have been as bad. Unfortunately he didn't and it reads like an ego-maniac's memoir.
March 8, 2016
Review of Takedown
by Jeff Buck
with Jon Land & Lindsay Preston
Jon Land has proven once again that he’s much more then just a thriller writer with Takedown. This is Land’s second non-fiction book, spinning the story of one of the biggest drug busts in modern history, born of an unholy alliance between the Hells Angels out of Montreal, a corrupt Indian reservation in New York State, and the Russian mob.
But the man at the center of the bust, Jeff Buck, actually comes from a small town in Ohio where he still serves as chief of police after a much lauded twenty-year career as an undercover drug officer that rightfully earned him the nickname “Dope Ghost.” This is Buck’s story, told in nourish, tough guy prose that features alternating chapters between the major case he spearheaded in 2009 and the chain of events the year before that led to his involvement in the first place.
I don’t read a lot of nonfiction and Takedown doesn’t read much like nonfiction at all; in fact, a few times I had to remind myself that all of this really happened. The novelistic approach serves Buck’s co-authors, the aforementioned Land and noted ghostwriter Lindsay Preston, well, creating a comfort zone that allows Jeff Buck’s voice to ring through in clear and discerning fashion. A complicated story turned into a coherent and riveting narrative that’s the best book of its kind since Robin Moore’s The French Connection.
The book opens with the 1995 murder of a young boy in a Montreal suburb, another victim claimed by the infamous Canadian Biker Wars that saw the Hells Angels stake their exclusive claim to territory previously shared with other gangs. Nearly fifteen years later Buck masterfully ties that to an infestation of drugs, mostly marijuana, being transported through sovereign Indian land belonging to the Akwesasne Mohawk nation in upstate New York that straddles the border with Canada to the tune of as much as two billion dollars per year. Did you know more drugs come into the US from Canada than Mexico? Neither did I.
The story takes on an almost Shakespearean-feel as Buck’s trail leads him from 20-something, millionaire Russian drug dealers in his suburban Ohio backyard to a Mohawk criminal kingpin done in by his own greed. But here’s the thing. Buck and his task force take them all down without gunfights or car chases. It’s all about surveillance, informants, drones and wiretaps. That said, Buck introduces himself into the story via a drug bust that almost went very bad when his back-up team got stuck in traffic behind a school bus. Some things you just can’t make up.
And Takedown is full of them. Somehow Jeff Buck, with Land’s and Preston’s help, has managed to make all the minutia seem magical, turning a by-the-books procedural into a no-holds barred, gritty tale of low-lifes and heroes battling for control of the nation’s heart and soul. This is the War on Drugs as seen from the front lines by a cop who’s walked the walked and talked the talk and it’s sure to leave you with a fresh understanding of the rigors and challenges involved in bringing down the bad guys.
In reading Takedown, you get the sense you’re learning from the very best. School’s in session with Jeff Buck serving as our teacher, providing a lesson in pitch-perfect plotting and storytelling that’s destined to be the best true crime tale of 2016.
by Jeff Buck
with Jon Land & Lindsay Preston
Jon Land has proven once again that he’s much more then just a thriller writer with Takedown. This is Land’s second non-fiction book, spinning the story of one of the biggest drug busts in modern history, born of an unholy alliance between the Hells Angels out of Montreal, a corrupt Indian reservation in New York State, and the Russian mob.
But the man at the center of the bust, Jeff Buck, actually comes from a small town in Ohio where he still serves as chief of police after a much lauded twenty-year career as an undercover drug officer that rightfully earned him the nickname “Dope Ghost.” This is Buck’s story, told in nourish, tough guy prose that features alternating chapters between the major case he spearheaded in 2009 and the chain of events the year before that led to his involvement in the first place.
I don’t read a lot of nonfiction and Takedown doesn’t read much like nonfiction at all; in fact, a few times I had to remind myself that all of this really happened. The novelistic approach serves Buck’s co-authors, the aforementioned Land and noted ghostwriter Lindsay Preston, well, creating a comfort zone that allows Jeff Buck’s voice to ring through in clear and discerning fashion. A complicated story turned into a coherent and riveting narrative that’s the best book of its kind since Robin Moore’s The French Connection.
The book opens with the 1995 murder of a young boy in a Montreal suburb, another victim claimed by the infamous Canadian Biker Wars that saw the Hells Angels stake their exclusive claim to territory previously shared with other gangs. Nearly fifteen years later Buck masterfully ties that to an infestation of drugs, mostly marijuana, being transported through sovereign Indian land belonging to the Akwesasne Mohawk nation in upstate New York that straddles the border with Canada to the tune of as much as two billion dollars per year. Did you know more drugs come into the US from Canada than Mexico? Neither did I.
The story takes on an almost Shakespearean-feel as Buck’s trail leads him from 20-something, millionaire Russian drug dealers in his suburban Ohio backyard to a Mohawk criminal kingpin done in by his own greed. But here’s the thing. Buck and his task force take them all down without gunfights or car chases. It’s all about surveillance, informants, drones and wiretaps. That said, Buck introduces himself into the story via a drug bust that almost went very bad when his back-up team got stuck in traffic behind a school bus. Some things you just can’t make up.
And Takedown is full of them. Somehow Jeff Buck, with Land’s and Preston’s help, has managed to make all the minutia seem magical, turning a by-the-books procedural into a no-holds barred, gritty tale of low-lifes and heroes battling for control of the nation’s heart and soul. This is the War on Drugs as seen from the front lines by a cop who’s walked the walked and talked the talk and it’s sure to leave you with a fresh understanding of the rigors and challenges involved in bringing down the bad guys.
In reading Takedown, you get the sense you’re learning from the very best. School’s in session with Jeff Buck serving as our teacher, providing a lesson in pitch-perfect plotting and storytelling that’s destined to be the best true crime tale of 2016.
May 21, 2019
Anticlimactic finish. In depth, behind the scenes look at how an undercover cop was able to ultimately capture drug dealers. Battle isnt necessarily with the Hells Angel's as much as it is dealers who got their supply from the HA. Overall decent book. A bit scattered at times.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2020
I would give this book a 3.5, really wish goodreads would let us do that. This book was actually a lot of fun to read. Jeff definitely knew what he was doing. The one thing I didn't like was how it kind of tailed off at the end.
May 14, 2024
He put the name Hells Angels on the cover to sell books. Buck does not ever at any time "battle" the Hells Angels. In fact, he doesn't do much of anything besides brag about what a super awesome cop he is.
Pass on this one.
Pass on this one.
July 17, 2019
Awesome book! Great insight into what our LEO's have to do with in the drug war.
March 23, 2017
Interest book.
August 20, 2024
A mundane investigation memoir that's not really about Hells Angels
There is something weak about a crime investigation memoir that requires three authors to polish it up (including best-selling thriller and detective novelist Jon Land) and still needs a sub-title refence to a non-existent "battle against the Hell's Angels" to make it sound interesting enough to sell. Because "Takedown" is NOT about a battle with the Hell's Angels. It is, in fact, a somewhat interesting but mostly mundane story about a small town police chief who pursued a local drug investigation from Ohio to upstate New York, discovered the drugs were produced by Canada's Hells Angels and smuggled by Mohawk Indians living on a reservation, and ended up leading a task force that took down the mostly small operators that were selling massive amounts of Canadian marijuana in the New York/Ohio area.
Takedown is written in the first person and is meant to give author Jeff Buck's voice to the story. This doesn't really work because the "story" goes all over the map. And Jeff Buck, an experienced small town chief of police with an extensive background as an undercover narcotics detective, while surely a fine law enforcement officer and noble citizen, comes off as an egotistical know-it-all... even if he insists he is not. He is harsh in his criticisms of other law enforcement officers he thinks "don't get it" and I can imagine not a few people were infuriated to be named in this book when such criticisms were being leveled. This wouldn't be so bad if it was a comprehensive memoir of a retired career cop, but it's not. It's about a single case. And when the entire case closes out, the ending is anti-climatic... which he proceeds to tell the reader is how most drug cases end. Thanks.
Takedown tries to cover several threads of interesting facts related to the case. Much of the book follows the unfortunate criminal thread of Danny Simonds, a former Marine used as a drug runner by the Akwesasne (Mohawk) Indian mastermind, Alan Jacobs, and who was eventually murdered. This murder was the only major crime for which the Alan Jacobs organization was finally taken down. It's a thin thread and is stretched thinner in an attempt to use this somewhat sympathetic character to create suspense. But it's not much to chew on. And having Danny Simonds' story told by the voice of Jeff Buck doesn't fit the stream of the narrative very well.
Other facts about the Akwesasne/St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation and its smuggling culture are also interesting threads. But that could have been a stand-alone book. The same could be said about the history of the Hells Angels in Quebec/Ontario. Good info, but it's meat added to a rather thin bone of a narcotics investigation. And the Canadian takedown of the Hell's Angels simultaneous to the US investigation was mostly background to the main story. Most of the criminal enterprise on the south of the border involved small town losers, dealers, runners, and buyers most of whom received relatively light sentences.
I read Takedown for professional reasons as I do work supporting a law enforcement agency operating on the US Border with Mexico. So drug smuggling tactics and the investigative lessons-learned of various successful cases are interesting to me. Takedown did not let me down in that regard. But I was reading it from a "policy wonk" point of view. And the "wonky" details, such as the detailed explanation of how drug case paperwork needs to be handled, tactics for following the string from the low-level sellers and buyers to the kingpins, and the unusual dynamics and law enforcement challenges of sovereign Native American land straddling the border were all important and interesting to me. I also enjoyed learning more about the concept of using forfeiture to finance increasingly more expensive counter-drug operations. Jeff Buck certainly knows his stuff and his concepts for state-wide counter-drug coordination and synchronization are interesting. But as these details were often written in a non-fiction narrative fashion--dry to the ear of those who like suspenseful true-crime books or memoirs--this is the very part of the book most people won't like.
I did get a lot out of Takedown. But for pure reading pleasure by those interested in the Hells Angels or lurid true crime narratives, it might prove disappointing. It's just not there.
Recommended for the good parts but Takedown is not as good as it wants to be.
There is something weak about a crime investigation memoir that requires three authors to polish it up (including best-selling thriller and detective novelist Jon Land) and still needs a sub-title refence to a non-existent "battle against the Hell's Angels" to make it sound interesting enough to sell. Because "Takedown" is NOT about a battle with the Hell's Angels. It is, in fact, a somewhat interesting but mostly mundane story about a small town police chief who pursued a local drug investigation from Ohio to upstate New York, discovered the drugs were produced by Canada's Hells Angels and smuggled by Mohawk Indians living on a reservation, and ended up leading a task force that took down the mostly small operators that were selling massive amounts of Canadian marijuana in the New York/Ohio area.
Takedown is written in the first person and is meant to give author Jeff Buck's voice to the story. This doesn't really work because the "story" goes all over the map. And Jeff Buck, an experienced small town chief of police with an extensive background as an undercover narcotics detective, while surely a fine law enforcement officer and noble citizen, comes off as an egotistical know-it-all... even if he insists he is not. He is harsh in his criticisms of other law enforcement officers he thinks "don't get it" and I can imagine not a few people were infuriated to be named in this book when such criticisms were being leveled. This wouldn't be so bad if it was a comprehensive memoir of a retired career cop, but it's not. It's about a single case. And when the entire case closes out, the ending is anti-climatic... which he proceeds to tell the reader is how most drug cases end. Thanks.
Takedown tries to cover several threads of interesting facts related to the case. Much of the book follows the unfortunate criminal thread of Danny Simonds, a former Marine used as a drug runner by the Akwesasne (Mohawk) Indian mastermind, Alan Jacobs, and who was eventually murdered. This murder was the only major crime for which the Alan Jacobs organization was finally taken down. It's a thin thread and is stretched thinner in an attempt to use this somewhat sympathetic character to create suspense. But it's not much to chew on. And having Danny Simonds' story told by the voice of Jeff Buck doesn't fit the stream of the narrative very well.
Other facts about the Akwesasne/St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation and its smuggling culture are also interesting threads. But that could have been a stand-alone book. The same could be said about the history of the Hells Angels in Quebec/Ontario. Good info, but it's meat added to a rather thin bone of a narcotics investigation. And the Canadian takedown of the Hell's Angels simultaneous to the US investigation was mostly background to the main story. Most of the criminal enterprise on the south of the border involved small town losers, dealers, runners, and buyers most of whom received relatively light sentences.
I read Takedown for professional reasons as I do work supporting a law enforcement agency operating on the US Border with Mexico. So drug smuggling tactics and the investigative lessons-learned of various successful cases are interesting to me. Takedown did not let me down in that regard. But I was reading it from a "policy wonk" point of view. And the "wonky" details, such as the detailed explanation of how drug case paperwork needs to be handled, tactics for following the string from the low-level sellers and buyers to the kingpins, and the unusual dynamics and law enforcement challenges of sovereign Native American land straddling the border were all important and interesting to me. I also enjoyed learning more about the concept of using forfeiture to finance increasingly more expensive counter-drug operations. Jeff Buck certainly knows his stuff and his concepts for state-wide counter-drug coordination and synchronization are interesting. But as these details were often written in a non-fiction narrative fashion--dry to the ear of those who like suspenseful true-crime books or memoirs--this is the very part of the book most people won't like.
I did get a lot out of Takedown. But for pure reading pleasure by those interested in the Hells Angels or lurid true crime narratives, it might prove disappointing. It's just not there.
Recommended for the good parts but Takedown is not as good as it wants to be.
March 7, 2016
Takedown: A Small-Town Cop's Battle Against the Hells Angels and the Nation's Biggest Drug Gang by Jeff Buck (with Jon Land & Lindsay Preston) is an inspirational book about the war on drugs and how law enforcement fights it in today's world, but it is also a history lesson using a case Jeff Buck worked on to show how criminal drug enterprises came to be and how they continue to evolve today.
Right from the beginning, Jeff Buck makes it clear that his passion is removing as many people and as much illegal substance as possible from the streets as often and in as much volume as he can. He describes several of his past cases and how those cases have helped him develop his style of meticulous and complete research to capture as much drugs and assets as possible. Buck talks of using "walk" money (cash forfeitures from previous cases) for undercover operations and "working up the food chain" (getting as high as possible in the criminal syndicate, to the criminal business owners, above the dealers, runners, and distributors) as far as he can. It was really enlightening to understand how it all works and more importantly how much time and how many people it takes for a large takedown to occur. Jeff Buck constantly reminds the reader that while he likes to lead the large takedown effort, that none of it could happen without the support of several enforcement agencies and offices and most importantly, countless men who believe in the same cause as Buck.
The book flows back and forth between the case Buck is working on and necessary backstory with ease. I can feel Buck's addictively frenetic energy at times oozing from the pages and all the while I feel like I am getting an education in the criminal drug world. The book is gritty and honest and yet still quite entertaining. I also appreciated that although there were a lot of names and places going on, the book kept it organized and straight forward enough for me to keep up with all of the players.
I would recommend this book to anyone, although it might be depressing to someone in the criminal drug world. I admire Jeff Buck's book and I admire Jeff Buck's drive to make our society a better place!
***I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway!***
Right from the beginning, Jeff Buck makes it clear that his passion is removing as many people and as much illegal substance as possible from the streets as often and in as much volume as he can. He describes several of his past cases and how those cases have helped him develop his style of meticulous and complete research to capture as much drugs and assets as possible. Buck talks of using "walk" money (cash forfeitures from previous cases) for undercover operations and "working up the food chain" (getting as high as possible in the criminal syndicate, to the criminal business owners, above the dealers, runners, and distributors) as far as he can. It was really enlightening to understand how it all works and more importantly how much time and how many people it takes for a large takedown to occur. Jeff Buck constantly reminds the reader that while he likes to lead the large takedown effort, that none of it could happen without the support of several enforcement agencies and offices and most importantly, countless men who believe in the same cause as Buck.
The book flows back and forth between the case Buck is working on and necessary backstory with ease. I can feel Buck's addictively frenetic energy at times oozing from the pages and all the while I feel like I am getting an education in the criminal drug world. The book is gritty and honest and yet still quite entertaining. I also appreciated that although there were a lot of names and places going on, the book kept it organized and straight forward enough for me to keep up with all of the players.
I would recommend this book to anyone, although it might be depressing to someone in the criminal drug world. I admire Jeff Buck's book and I admire Jeff Buck's drive to make our society a better place!
***I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway!***
March 9, 2016
I received this free through Goodbooks. It's an excellent book. Told from the writers point of view (his real life) and some from the "suspect(s)". Having been with law enforcement I understood a lot of what was going on but I learned a few things too. It's mostly about the US side in Ohio and NY, alittle about some of his earlier busts so you know how things are properly done. I'd say how he does it but he's correct and he does it properly. Takes his time, gathers his evidence, etc. Lots of paperwork! So if you were hoping for a story about the HA's this isn't it. (It was the Canadian HA's) There's a chapter or two that talks about them but it's more about the "untouchable" tribal land between Canada and the US and the drug trade running through it and how they brought it down.
May 14, 2016
While this book was very interesting, it actually had very little to do with the Hell's Angels. They were a part of the Canadian but that wasn't the side of the case that this guy worked. Besides that, the book is filled with tales of his other busts and experiences thought his year undercover and that's all very interesting, along side the main story. However, they need to fire their editor. Information is repeated several times throughout and the redundancy becomes annoying. The whole book reads as if it was an interview with the "Drug Ghost", where they just sat down and let him talk, then typed it out and called it a book. That's not a bad thing, but better editing would have helped it out a lot.
Overall this wasn't a bad book.
Overall this wasn't a bad book.
July 11, 2016
Well done and super-interesting, but it ended abruptly. Jeff Buck set up a premise that really drew me in and I hope he will write more about his career when he can. I don't know if all his cases are closed or if any investigations are still ongoing which might explain the sudden ending; however, if that is so, I wish he would have explained that.
January 20, 2017
Fascinating story about the drug ring smuggling on the U.S-Canadian border. This book centers around the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, Hells Angels and the drug gangs who were making thier living by being the dealers and runners.
I did not like the way the stories were broken up into different chapters. Made the stories lose thier luster. I would still recommend it, it is very eye opening.
I did not like the way the stories were broken up into different chapters. Made the stories lose thier luster. I would still recommend it, it is very eye opening.
August 22, 2016
This was a well written and very interesting book to read. I thought I knew a lot about policemen and the job they do by watching tv but this is much more interesting and I learned a lot.
August 13, 2016
Great nonfiction read. So many twists and turns that actually happened. I couldn't put it down.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews