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El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord
A stunning investigation of the life and legend of Mexican kingpin Joaquín Archivaldo “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, building on Noah Hurowitz’s revelatory coverage for Rolling Stone of El Chapo’s federal drug-trafficking trial.
This is the true story of how El Chapo built the world’s wealthiest and most powerful drug-trafficking operation, based on months’ worth of trial testimony and dozens of interviews with cartel gunmen, Mexican journalists and political figures, Chapo’s family members, and the DEA agents who brought him down.
Over the course of three decades, El Chapo was responsible for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, meth, and fentanyl around the world, becoming in the process the most celebrated and reviled drug lord since Pablo Escobar. El Chapo waged ruthless wars against his rivals and former allies, plunging vast areas of Mexico into unprecedented levels of violence, even as many in his home state of Sinaloa continued to view him as a hero.
This unputdownable book, written by a great new talent, brings El Chapo’s exploits into a focus that previous profiles have failed to capture. Hurowitz digs in deep beyond the legends and delves into El Chapo’s life and legacy—not just the hunt for him, revealing some of the most dramatic and often horrifying moments of his notorious career, including the infamous prison escapes, brutal murders, multi-million-dollar government payoffs, and the paranoia and narcissism that led to his downfall. From the evolution of organized crime in Mexico to the militarization of the drug war to the devastation wrought on both sides of the border by the introduction of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, this book is a gripping and comprehensive work of investigative, on-the-ground reporting.
This is the true story of how El Chapo built the world’s wealthiest and most powerful drug-trafficking operation, based on months’ worth of trial testimony and dozens of interviews with cartel gunmen, Mexican journalists and political figures, Chapo’s family members, and the DEA agents who brought him down.
Over the course of three decades, El Chapo was responsible for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, meth, and fentanyl around the world, becoming in the process the most celebrated and reviled drug lord since Pablo Escobar. El Chapo waged ruthless wars against his rivals and former allies, plunging vast areas of Mexico into unprecedented levels of violence, even as many in his home state of Sinaloa continued to view him as a hero.
This unputdownable book, written by a great new talent, brings El Chapo’s exploits into a focus that previous profiles have failed to capture. Hurowitz digs in deep beyond the legends and delves into El Chapo’s life and legacy—not just the hunt for him, revealing some of the most dramatic and often horrifying moments of his notorious career, including the infamous prison escapes, brutal murders, multi-million-dollar government payoffs, and the paranoia and narcissism that led to his downfall. From the evolution of organized crime in Mexico to the militarization of the drug war to the devastation wrought on both sides of the border by the introduction of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, this book is a gripping and comprehensive work of investigative, on-the-ground reporting.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published July 20, 2021
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551 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
August 5, 2021
This is the book for anyone eager to look beyond sensational portrayals of El Chapo and understand what his true role was in the drug war. I found that the author skillfully constructs the universe in which the drug trade takes place, balancing all pieces: from geopolitical agendas, US-Mexico trade relations, and DEA and other agencies’ interests, to the reality on the ground in Mexico, he leaves no stone unturned. The book works at all scales, with every incident or personal anecdote inserted in a larger sociopolitical context. It manages to seamlessly connect harrowing testimonies of civilians affected by the violence of the drug war to a profound analysis about who ultimately profits from this war. Thoroughly researched and extremely thoughtful, this book unpacks for you every insidious aspect of the war on drugs. I highly recommend it!
December 11, 2021
This book was particularly informative about no only the rise and fall of "El Chapo" but also how Mexico devolved into a state where the real power is not always with the government, but with the various criminal organization vying for control of narcotic distribution and criminal activity. Hurowitz did his research, bringing to the American reader an understanding of the conditions in Mexico that allowed for man like El Chapo to rise to such power and wealth. Yet, even with El Chapo condemned to spend the rest of his natural life in US prison, the drug trade/wars in Mexico will likely continue for the foreseeable future.
One thing of note is that while the various gangs/organizations hold significant power in the country, Hurowitz holds that the narco-leaders aren't after political power/control of the country. They more just want to be able to operate without any interference from the government. Using the combination of "Plata o Plumbo" (silver or lead), the gangs manage to keep the government at bay, enabling men like El Chapo to rise and maintain power, and manage to avoid total capture/imprisonment for years.
A tough read, but one of the best books on not only El Chapo, but the drug wars and violence gripping Mexico.
One thing of note is that while the various gangs/organizations hold significant power in the country, Hurowitz holds that the narco-leaders aren't after political power/control of the country. They more just want to be able to operate without any interference from the government. Using the combination of "Plata o Plumbo" (silver or lead), the gangs manage to keep the government at bay, enabling men like El Chapo to rise and maintain power, and manage to avoid total capture/imprisonment for years.
A tough read, but one of the best books on not only El Chapo, but the drug wars and violence gripping Mexico.
June 28, 2022
El Chapo was a drug lord in Mexico's Sinaloa region. He was fabulously wealthy, ultra violent, and universally feared. Now he is sitting in a cell in an American maximum security prison, never to see his homeland again. But the drug wars go on. There are turf battles. It is more violent than ever. There were over 36,000 homicides in Mexico in 2020. Private armies guard those who have replaced El Chapo with weapons more lethal than those possessed by the military. Tens of billion of dollars continue to flow through the hands of exporters, dealers, police, and politicians - more than enough money to corrupt an entire country.
I traveled through Mexico in the early nineties. I loved the place. I felt safe there. The drug world is hidden from most tourists. This book reveals a sad, dark reality.
I traveled through Mexico in the early nineties. I loved the place. I felt safe there. The drug world is hidden from most tourists. This book reveals a sad, dark reality.
July 23, 2021
This book might at first seem like a biography of El Chapo. But it’s more than that, depicting the drug trade in Mexico at its most pivotal moments. We get glimpses of Chapo the man, but it’s really about the world he inhabits. There are plenty of exciting scenes and wild anecdotes but ultimately the author argues that interpersonal drama obscures the true story of the drug war. The book will hopefully convince readers to think more deeply about the drug trade and the complicity of the U.S. and Mexican governments.
August 19, 2022
Excellent book. Would recommend this one.
June 19, 2022
I’ve long avoided books about El Chapo, Mexican drug cartels, and other similar subjects because I think most US citizens have an outlandish view of how the drug trade actually works. In the brief encounters with Mexican drug cartels in fiction, the gangsters are portrayed as overly-tattooed, desperately violent and almost amoral. While there are, of course, shades of that in real life, it also shows a cartoonish image as an avatar for the average North American citizen’s inability to grapple with how its racist drug war policies impact both the home front and Mexico respectively.
However, having read (and enjoyed) Don Winslow’s The Cartel, I figured it was time to educate myself on who El Chapo is, what the Sinaloa Cartel is (or was) and how this all works. I picked a good book to do it. Like me, Noah Horowitz is not interested in the racial mythos that white US folk have largely created around it. Instead, he portrays the people involved from the lowest dealers up to El Chapo itself as part of an infrastructure going back decades that now hums with efficiency because of North America’s insatiable appetite for drugs.
Yet his book is not a tale of victims of circumstance. Although Hurowitz is honest about the living conditions in Sinaloa and how they easily draw folks like Joaquín Guzman Loera to drug trafficking, he talks about the violence on the path to power and how it impacts Mexico’s culture and society. He’s brutally honest that all parties are culpable and yet those who hold power should be more accountable.
The details of how El Chapo gained his empire are fascinating, and well-presented but if the book has a weakness, its covering his rise, which is barely glanced over. This is likely due to a paucity of information but I still would’ve appreciated more on how this poor dirt farmer became one of the richest and most powerful men in the world, all the while living on the run with his peasant instincts and creative head for business. Aside from that though, this is a readable, easily digested, well-researched account of both El Chapo’s life and the world that made him (and continues to make our relationship with Mexico volatile).
However, having read (and enjoyed) Don Winslow’s The Cartel, I figured it was time to educate myself on who El Chapo is, what the Sinaloa Cartel is (or was) and how this all works. I picked a good book to do it. Like me, Noah Horowitz is not interested in the racial mythos that white US folk have largely created around it. Instead, he portrays the people involved from the lowest dealers up to El Chapo itself as part of an infrastructure going back decades that now hums with efficiency because of North America’s insatiable appetite for drugs.
Yet his book is not a tale of victims of circumstance. Although Hurowitz is honest about the living conditions in Sinaloa and how they easily draw folks like Joaquín Guzman Loera to drug trafficking, he talks about the violence on the path to power and how it impacts Mexico’s culture and society. He’s brutally honest that all parties are culpable and yet those who hold power should be more accountable.
The details of how El Chapo gained his empire are fascinating, and well-presented but if the book has a weakness, its covering his rise, which is barely glanced over. This is likely due to a paucity of information but I still would’ve appreciated more on how this poor dirt farmer became one of the richest and most powerful men in the world, all the while living on the run with his peasant instincts and creative head for business. Aside from that though, this is a readable, easily digested, well-researched account of both El Chapo’s life and the world that made him (and continues to make our relationship with Mexico volatile).
October 30, 2021
Real life story of the border.
July 8, 2025
2.5/3 stars
For months, I’ve been trying to find a good book telling the story of El Chapo and his rise to power as one of the most powerful drug lord of its generation, the different drug wars between cartels, popular faces emerging from it, their dynamics and the way it impacts Mexico and on a daily basis Mexican people but sadly this book didn’t meet my expectations. I’ve read biographies before but this was by far one of the most boring and empty one I’ve read (it had plenty of informations but it felt quite flat).
From the start I knew I wouldn’t enjoy this read to its fullest potential because of the writing. The first chapters were written correctly and interesting but the more it passed the more it started to change, some important moments end up being missed or rushed, like for example, the death of El Chapo’s second son, which had a big impact into the way he treated his man/soldiers after that event and the implications of his other sons in the cartel, who are also a big part of El Chapo story, while not being centered on him, it’s still part of his story. Some passages end up really boring me, switching from first person to last person, while writing about the author’s holidays in Mexico (sorry but I’m here to read about El Chapo story not about his experiences in Mexico and his feelings during the final trial, if you want to speak about yourself write your own biography and not someone else’s (sorry if I’m being mean but the book was expensive bahaha)).
While personally I wouldn’t have called this an autobiography only focused on El Chapo but rather a general knowledge book about the different things that happened during the last two/three decades in Mexico history with drugs, passing by El Mayo, El Chapo and the differents conflicts in between, to the now new generations of Cartels, like the Zetas, CJNG and the new faces of the Sinaloa cartel : the sons of El Chapo "Los Chapitos".
Overall it was a bit all over the place but it still had some positive points and I’m glad to have read it and learned more about the history of narcotraffick in Mexico.
(While reading some chapters and listening to the audiobook at the same time, I noticed that certain parts weren’t the same as the book, some sentences or words were or changed or erased. I don’t know if that’s supposed to be normal but I thought I mention it.)
For months, I’ve been trying to find a good book telling the story of El Chapo and his rise to power as one of the most powerful drug lord of its generation, the different drug wars between cartels, popular faces emerging from it, their dynamics and the way it impacts Mexico and on a daily basis Mexican people but sadly this book didn’t meet my expectations. I’ve read biographies before but this was by far one of the most boring and empty one I’ve read (it had plenty of informations but it felt quite flat).
From the start I knew I wouldn’t enjoy this read to its fullest potential because of the writing. The first chapters were written correctly and interesting but the more it passed the more it started to change, some important moments end up being missed or rushed, like for example, the death of El Chapo’s second son, which had a big impact into the way he treated his man/soldiers after that event and the implications of his other sons in the cartel, who are also a big part of El Chapo story, while not being centered on him, it’s still part of his story. Some passages end up really boring me, switching from first person to last person, while writing about the author’s holidays in Mexico (sorry but I’m here to read about El Chapo story not about his experiences in Mexico and his feelings during the final trial, if you want to speak about yourself write your own biography and not someone else’s (sorry if I’m being mean but the book was expensive bahaha)).
While personally I wouldn’t have called this an autobiography only focused on El Chapo but rather a general knowledge book about the different things that happened during the last two/three decades in Mexico history with drugs, passing by El Mayo, El Chapo and the differents conflicts in between, to the now new generations of Cartels, like the Zetas, CJNG and the new faces of the Sinaloa cartel : the sons of El Chapo "Los Chapitos".
Overall it was a bit all over the place but it still had some positive points and I’m glad to have read it and learned more about the history of narcotraffick in Mexico.
(While reading some chapters and listening to the audiobook at the same time, I noticed that certain parts weren’t the same as the book, some sentences or words were or changed or erased. I don’t know if that’s supposed to be normal but I thought I mention it.)
July 27, 2021
El Chapo is the most famous of the modern narco traffickers and his story is fascinating but this book was a little disappointing for me. As I am interested in the topic of the war on drugs and current affairs in Mexico, I was too familiar with described events (contrary to the subtitle) - I read all about it in many other books, like the fascinating El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo and in Don Winslow novels, which are fiction but are based on facts. Moreover I wasn’t convinced by the author’s style.
I recommend it to the readers who are new to this topic, for them it will be a more interesting read, I suppose.
Thanks to the publisher, AtriaBooks, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.
I recommend it to the readers who are new to this topic, for them it will be a more interesting read, I suppose.
Thanks to the publisher, AtriaBooks, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.
May 19, 2022
Just a hop skip and a jump from the town I grew up in. All this terrible stuff was going down and this jerk is now housed in Colorado's Supermax, had to follow me here, I guess.
This effing guy was brilliant and diabolical. Quintessential bad guy.
Fascinating read for anyone, but especially those of us that grew up in deep south Arizona. Just a hint of the threats that my friends and family have faced.
As insane as it may be, one of the senior trips available the year I graduated high school was Mazatlan, Mexico where El Chapo spent a good deal of time!
This effing guy was brilliant and diabolical. Quintessential bad guy.
Fascinating read for anyone, but especially those of us that grew up in deep south Arizona. Just a hint of the threats that my friends and family have faced.
As insane as it may be, one of the senior trips available the year I graduated high school was Mazatlan, Mexico where El Chapo spent a good deal of time!
February 17, 2025
Overall a good read. Watch Narcos Mexico for a more enjoyable time.
August 1, 2021
The endnotes move this book from 4 to 5 stars. They contain links to support the text. There may be better books about El Chapo, but this one places him in a comprehensive history of narcotrafficking in Mexico. The relationship of the cartels to the Mexican government and its law enforcement reminds me of the Whitey Bulger case. Bulger, one of the rottenest criminals of all time, collaborated very closely with the FBI.
September 23, 2021
From the epilogue: “The best way of understanding the drug trade is this: it is a capitalist enterprise in Mexico, and as such it has always had a corrupt and fuzzy relationship with the state — and has always been subject to the coercive demands and fickle priorities of U.S.foreign policy. Prohibition increases the risks, frequency of violence, and the profit margins, but does not inherently separate the drug trade from the state.”
March 13, 2022
did not finish. got to around chapter 12/18.
There is a similar book written by a NYT jounralist Alan Feurer which I feel is written better and more detailed. That book is based on his review of thousands of pages of trial transcripts and other court related documents, from Chapos case, and many other federal cases. It's more detailed.
This was like a light version of it that hits same content but not a deep dive. It was ok but there are better stories out there.
There is a similar book written by a NYT jounralist Alan Feurer which I feel is written better and more detailed. That book is based on his review of thousands of pages of trial transcripts and other court related documents, from Chapos case, and many other federal cases. It's more detailed.
This was like a light version of it that hits same content but not a deep dive. It was ok but there are better stories out there.
June 26, 2022
This book is so well-written and researched. Writer seems to have an incredible amount of information. Excellent weaving together of the history of the drug trade in various countries, how it relates to the economy through time and the roles different governments play in it all. The El Chapo story is obviously the main part of the book, but the context in which it’s presented is where this writer shines.
April 26, 2023
El Chapo is the best book you’re going to read on the rise and fall of the 21st century’s most notorious narco. It’s a fast-paced journey through the landscape and history of the bloody war on drugs in Mexico. The war on drugs may have failed for most of us, but as Hurowitz points out, it’s working out very nicely for those who profit from it, including the narcos themselves who make their fortunes in the black market.
Pick up this book and get smarter on the drugs business.
Pick up this book and get smarter on the drugs business.
January 12, 2025
Did you know that "el chapo" is Spanish for the "the chap"? Apparently, Guzman had a notorious fondness for bowler hats, high tea, and her royal majesty queen Elizabeth. One of the many fascinating factoids you'll learn in this book.
Just kidding. Fascinating and thoroughly researched in el chapo's life. Amazing read. Spoiler: the dude owes a most of his success to giant holes in the ground.
Just kidding. Fascinating and thoroughly researched in el chapo's life. Amazing read. Spoiler: the dude owes a most of his success to giant holes in the ground.
June 9, 2021
A good, thorough covering of the El Chapo saga. I didn't learn much new, as it seems that this has all been covered, over and over, before. Well written, in any case. Did cover the period after El Chapo was sentenced in the U.S., and how the drug trafficking and violence has not subsided at all.
June 26, 2024
An objective narrative on the war on drugs and its many players, this book is very informative. It was however extremely repetitive. Definitely needed a more thorough edit. Overall I learned a lot about narcos than I knew prior to this book.
December 30, 2024
As a straight forward narrative of events, it’s clear and engaging. The analysis is, however, mostly absent until the Epilogue. I was looking for a synthesis of the journalism with political economy, but this is not that. I’ll keep looking.
November 25, 2021
This was an interesting read!
December 18, 2021
Good read
Good history of the drug war told by following the life of el chapo. Great citations and well written. Highly recommend.
Good history of the drug war told by following the life of el chapo. Great citations and well written. Highly recommend.
March 30, 2022
We’ll researched and written but ultimately boring. Drugs, cops, federales, traffickers, murders, blah blah blah. I get it - but really not a lot of light shed.
August 16, 2022
The first half can be a bit plodding but the last half reads like a thriller. It needed better editing, otherwise I would’ve given it 4.5 stars.
February 15, 2023
I grew up hearing his name in and out of the news. This investigative journalistic history is a thorough and informative account of who is the man behind the myth.
February 9, 2024
very interesting and informative.
July 1, 2024
Good mix of history and current events.
August 31, 2025
Never, at any point in America’s war against bootleg liquor, was Al Capone the most powerful gangster in America. And yet there was something about him that came to symbolize the age, its riotous excesses and its culture. Like it or not (and he seemed to suck up the adulation quite a lot) Capone became the face of the era.
A similar dynamic seems to be at work with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the narcotrafficker from Sinaloa, Mexico whose twenty year-plus reign is the stuff of legend. Part of his appeal (if you want to call it that) is that he escaped from multiple prisons. Another fascinating feature of his operation was that he constructed a direct tunnel from Mexico to the United States for smuggling his drugs. Many times elite military and police units would find his location and swoop in, only for Guzman to escape through some trapdoor or hidden wall, again into freedom.
Noah Hurowitz’s book “El Chapo,” then, is as much about the phenomenon of the man as the man himself. In fact, in many ways it is more interested in the phenomenon than the man, especially how narcotrafficking intersects with Mexican and American politics.
It’s fun and profitable for songwriters, filmmakers, and others to pretend that some fierce kingpin sits atop the drug game like his own personal fiefdom. The truth, though—at least as propounded by Hurowitz—is that the kingpins are merely interchangeable tools of the true power, which is the system itself.
That’s a lot less sexy than the lies people tell themselves, but every once in a while you have to engage with the truth. It’s especially important to do so now, Hurowitz argues, because the human toll on both sides of the Border is so high. Others, such as journalist Sam Quinones, have focused on the consequences of the drug war stateside. Hurowitz focuses his attention on Mexico, particularly much-neglected and rural locales where poverty drove farmers to cultivate poppies and marijuana as their primary cash crops. It’s a land where murder rates are measured in thousands rather than hundreds, where police forces are routinely routed by drug gangs as well-armed as paramilitaries. It’s a land where a bagful of heads can end up dumped on a dancefloor on a Saturday night, and bodies can be strung in a row from the trusswork of a bridge. It’s also a place where many good people simply want to live and work in peace, and are sadly not allowed to achieve that humble end.
The book is not a biography of El Chapo, but since he was very much a product of this land, Hurowitz’s exploration of this country explains much about Guzman.
The book is well-written, extremely informative, and fairly fast-paced. And, if you want some thrills (who doesn’t) the details on the cat-and-mouse game between Guzman and the Mexican cops and marines is pretty heart-stopping. This section of the book reminded me, in its way, of Mark Bowden’s classic tale about catching Pablo Escobar, “Killing Pablo.”
And for those who want a little Clancy-esque high-tech espionage with their manhunting, the chapters dealing with El Chapo’s IT administrator were equally gripping. Recommended, with one section of photos in the middle of the book.
A similar dynamic seems to be at work with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the narcotrafficker from Sinaloa, Mexico whose twenty year-plus reign is the stuff of legend. Part of his appeal (if you want to call it that) is that he escaped from multiple prisons. Another fascinating feature of his operation was that he constructed a direct tunnel from Mexico to the United States for smuggling his drugs. Many times elite military and police units would find his location and swoop in, only for Guzman to escape through some trapdoor or hidden wall, again into freedom.
Noah Hurowitz’s book “El Chapo,” then, is as much about the phenomenon of the man as the man himself. In fact, in many ways it is more interested in the phenomenon than the man, especially how narcotrafficking intersects with Mexican and American politics.
It’s fun and profitable for songwriters, filmmakers, and others to pretend that some fierce kingpin sits atop the drug game like his own personal fiefdom. The truth, though—at least as propounded by Hurowitz—is that the kingpins are merely interchangeable tools of the true power, which is the system itself.
That’s a lot less sexy than the lies people tell themselves, but every once in a while you have to engage with the truth. It’s especially important to do so now, Hurowitz argues, because the human toll on both sides of the Border is so high. Others, such as journalist Sam Quinones, have focused on the consequences of the drug war stateside. Hurowitz focuses his attention on Mexico, particularly much-neglected and rural locales where poverty drove farmers to cultivate poppies and marijuana as their primary cash crops. It’s a land where murder rates are measured in thousands rather than hundreds, where police forces are routinely routed by drug gangs as well-armed as paramilitaries. It’s a land where a bagful of heads can end up dumped on a dancefloor on a Saturday night, and bodies can be strung in a row from the trusswork of a bridge. It’s also a place where many good people simply want to live and work in peace, and are sadly not allowed to achieve that humble end.
The book is not a biography of El Chapo, but since he was very much a product of this land, Hurowitz’s exploration of this country explains much about Guzman.
The book is well-written, extremely informative, and fairly fast-paced. And, if you want some thrills (who doesn’t) the details on the cat-and-mouse game between Guzman and the Mexican cops and marines is pretty heart-stopping. This section of the book reminded me, in its way, of Mark Bowden’s classic tale about catching Pablo Escobar, “Killing Pablo.”
And for those who want a little Clancy-esque high-tech espionage with their manhunting, the chapters dealing with El Chapo’s IT administrator were equally gripping. Recommended, with one section of photos in the middle of the book.
February 1, 2023
This book did a fantastic job of examining El Chapo’s career as a drug trafficker in order to explain the history and evolution of drug trafficking and the War on Drugs in Mexico. I do not think this was an easy task, as it seems it would be incredibly easy to get bogged down with details about El Chapo’s lifestyle, psychological makeup, or the scale of the cartel’s violence at the expense of everything else. Instead, these types of details are woven together with accounts of how, for example, the decentralized weed and opium trafficking cliques worked with local cops and politicians before cocaine trafficking began in the 70’s, or how the privatization and economic liberalization caused by NAFTA and the economic depression of 2008 created a generation of disaffected young men willing to fight in the Cartel’s wars over trafficking routes in Mexico’s border cities. These wars, of course, are not waged against the state or with the state acting as a 3rd party as much as they are between the various cartel leaders and their various allies within the state. It is hard to come away from this book without that key understanding. In addition, it becomes hard for even the most patriotic US reader not to see the War on Drugs as a foreign policy weapon the US uses to control Mexico, starting with Operation Intercept in 1969 (the US spent weeks stopping and searching every single car crossing the border). I also think the author approaches conspiracy theories over matters like El Chapo’s escapes from prison well by not dismissing them, but also not missing the bigger picture of corruption and bribery because of them. Overall, there is a lot of bad coverage of drug cartels and the War on Drugs, so it’s really great to read something that makes it so clear how everything really works.
Sidenote: really want to learn more about the PRI-era Mexico now; El Chapo was coming up during their decline, so this book couldn't really focus too much on them.
November 29, 2023
El Chapo is the story of the most well-known drug lord in the world. El Chapo, whose actual name was Joaquín Guzmán, began his life in La Tuna Mexico and turned to the opium trade at an early age to escape poverty as there were few opportunities for kids like him. After doing this for several years El Chapo joined a crime syndicate and helped to smuggle drugs across the border. He was known to be ruthless and killed smugglers who were not on time with their shipments. After the leader of his syndicate was caught he started his the Tijuana Cartel. Following this he became extremely powerful through the smuggling of drugs to the US until his third capture and eventual extradition to the US Supermax Prison ADX Florence, where he now resides to this day.
My Favorite Quote in this novel was probably "The best way of understanding the drug trade is this: it is a capitalist enterprise in Mexico." It gives the reader a comparison that allows us to understand just how prevalent and common the drug trade was in Mexico. The ability to understand this clears up some of the confusion the reader may have and gives us insight into the inner workings of the Cartels operating in Mexico.
All in all, I would rate this book a 5/5. The book was fantastic and had impressive amounts of evidence and sources that the author had spent years collecting. I believe that this might be one of, if not the best accounts of the Mexican drug cartels and their most infamous member: El Chapo.
Although I sincerely enjoyed the book, I believe that it could have been done better at some points such as when the author while refer back to the trial often but not give the reader the background needed to understand it. However, I believe that this is a moot point as the book was so well written in every other aspect that I think it easily earns the 5/5 rating.
My Favorite Quote in this novel was probably "The best way of understanding the drug trade is this: it is a capitalist enterprise in Mexico." It gives the reader a comparison that allows us to understand just how prevalent and common the drug trade was in Mexico. The ability to understand this clears up some of the confusion the reader may have and gives us insight into the inner workings of the Cartels operating in Mexico.
All in all, I would rate this book a 5/5. The book was fantastic and had impressive amounts of evidence and sources that the author had spent years collecting. I believe that this might be one of, if not the best accounts of the Mexican drug cartels and their most infamous member: El Chapo.
Although I sincerely enjoyed the book, I believe that it could have been done better at some points such as when the author while refer back to the trial often but not give the reader the background needed to understand it. However, I believe that this is a moot point as the book was so well written in every other aspect that I think it easily earns the 5/5 rating.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews