Mexican True Crime

The Mexican drug trade has inspired prejudiced narratives of a war between north and south, White and Brown; between noble cops and vicious kingpins, corrupt politicians and powerful cartels. In this first comprehensive history of the trade, historian Benjamin T. Smith tells the real story of how and why this one-peaceful industry turned violent. He uncovers its origins and explains how this illicit business essentially built modern Mexico, affecting everything from agriculture to medicine to economics - and the country’s all-important relationship with the United States.

Rene "Boxer" Enriquez grew up on the violent streets of East L.A., where gang fights, robberies, and drive-by shootings were fueled by rage, drugs, and alcohol. When he finally landed in prison - at the age of 19 - Enriquez found an organization that brought him the respect he always wanted: the near-mythic and widely feared Mexican Mafia, La Eme. What the organization saw in Enriquez was a young man who knew no fear and would kill anyone - justifiably or not - in the blink of an eye.

Drug Lord, a firsthand account of drug dealing, murder, and corruption, tells of drug kingpin Pablo Acosta, who smuggled up to 20 tons of cocaine each year into the United States before treachery brought about his downfall and grisly death.

On September 26, 2014, 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. According to official reports, the students commandeered several buses to travel to Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. During the journey, local police intercepted the students and a confrontation ensued. By the morning, they had disappeared without a trace. Hernández reconstructs almost minute-by-minute the events of those nights in late September 2014, giving us what is surely the most complete picture available.

This thought-provoking book examines gang history in the region encompassing West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Known as the El Paso-Juárez borderland region, the area contains more than three million people spanning 130 miles from east to west. Mike Tapia examines this region by exploring a century of historical developments through a criminological lens and by studying the diverse subcultures on both sides of the law.

Minutes into this rollicking good story, the central figure, Lee Chagra, comes alive: "[Lee] washed his morning cocaine down with strong coffee and remembered the time he had met Sinatra, how genuine he appeared." Everything you'll need to know and remember about Chagra - the son of Syrian immigrants to Mexico and an attorney who spun the world of dope-running, border-crossing, high-living outlaws along the El Paso-Juarez border around his finger like the gaudy rings he favored - can be neatly summarized in that one sentence.

Pete Forcelli was a highly respected federal agent in New York City, where he made an impact on violent crime by successfully targeting some of the city's most violent street gangs by using federal racketeering and continuing criminal enterprise statutes in conjunction with federal prosecutors. In early 2007, he was promoted to a supervisory position in Phoenix and quickly discovered that federal prosecutors were not charging criminals for violating federal firearms laws, even in instances where they knew guns were being trafficked to ultra-violent drug cartels.

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.

Javier Valdez ofrece un libro impactante que va del reportaje a la crónica para rescatar del silencio, de la nota roja y del olvido, a numerosas mujeres que viven entre las balas momentos cruciales de su vida. Amantes de capos, amigas de ellos o familiares, son mujeres con una verdad ardiente y dolorosa, que buscan el glamour y la hermosura, el poder económico y la huida de su realidad; mujeres que viven en el límite de la ley, la violencia y de la muerte.

When two worlds collide, the illegal transportation of tons of Mexican cartel marijuana to inner city gang members in a Midwestern city's "hood" - three bodies end up burning, caught in a web of greed as a major international drug deal goes very bad. The chilling trail of evidence from a remote wooded area, where three bodies are set on fire leads homicide detectives across the country chasing down witnesses and conspirators in a two-year search for cold-blooded killers.

Javier Valdez recoge los relatos más intensos, conmovedores y sorprendentes que tiñen la realidad social y política de México a diario. El número de niños y jóvenes que participan activamente en las actividades del narcotráfico en México es cada día mayor. Batos de 13, 14,15 años y hasta los 21 ó 23 años actúan alucinados y con feroz valentía en levantones, asesinatos, decapitaciones, transporte de droga y secuestros. Y este libro impactante comparte historias reales de estos acontecimientos.

How did a bank, which boasts ‘we’re committed to helping protect the world’s financial system on which millions of people depend, by only doing business with customers who meet our high standards of transparency’ come to facilitate Mexico’s richest drug baron? And how did a bank that as recently as 2002 had been named ‘one of the best-run organisations in the world’ become so entwined with such a criminal? Too Big to Jail is an extraordinary story brilliantly told by writer, commentator, and former editor of The Independent.

The Borderland Beat project is collaboration from a group of people of different backgrounds located in the US and Mexico that gather information related to the Mexican drug cartels and presents it in English through the internet, publications, and presentations. The information in this audiobook is fast-paced, with a lot of drug trafficking organization (DTO) information thrown at you at once. It's filled with hit men activity and the Mexican government's attempt to intervene, but it also contains a lot of direct, behind-the-scenes information from the author.

Ned "Crash" Aiken thought he had made a clean break. He had turned on his biker brothers in the Sons of Satan and entered the FBI's witness protection program, only to end up in a different kind of prison, one of mediocre work and cheap apartments. He then fell in with the Russian mob, learning their brutal code first-hand and fleeing their organization when the stakes got too high. Between the FBI, the Sons, and the Russians, there are a lot of people who want to get their hands on the innocent-looking ex-drug trafficker.

In a Mexico City mansion on October 23, 1789, Don Joaquin Dongo and ten of his employees were brutally murdered by three killers armed with machetes. Investigators worked tirelessly to find the perpetrators, who were publicly executed two weeks later. Labelled the "crime of the century," these events and their aftermath have intrigued writers of fiction and nonfiction for over two centuries. Using a range of sources, Nicole von Germeten recreates a paper trail of Enlightenment-era greed and savagery, and highlights how the violence of the Mexican judiciary echoed the acts of the murderers.

Fear is Just a Word begins on an international bridge between Mexico and the United States, as fifty-six-year-old Miriam Rodriguez stalks one of the men she believes was involved in the murder of her daughter Karen. He is her target number eleven, a member of the drug cartel that has terrorised and controlled what was once Miriam's quiet hometown of San Fernando, Mexico, almost one hundred miles from the US border. Having dyed her hair red as a disguise, Miriam watches, waits, and then orchestrates the arrest of this man, exacting her own revenge.

El 5 de febrero de 1970, un hombre de 28 años intentó matar a Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. Falló. Pero el Estado reaccionó con saña maquiavélica y no falló en su intento de matarlo en vida. Después del atentado, Carlos Castañeda fue detenido y torturado. Sin embargo, eso no fue lo peor: una jueza lo declaró «jurídicamente incapaz» y ordenó refundirlo en el manicomio. Lo dejaron ahí 23 años, desecho, ignorado, enloquecido. Cuando al fin fue liberado, en 1993, ya era un hombre sin nombre, sin identidad ni historia. Vagó por las calles hasta su muerte.

Carmen Aguirre has lived many lives, all of them to the fullest. At age six she was a Chilean refugee adjusting to life as a Latina in North America. At 18 she was a revolutionary dissident. In her early 20s she fought to find her voice as an actor and to break away from the stereotypical roles thrust upon her - Housekeeper, Hotel Maid, Mexican Hooker #1.

In September 2002, Mexican writer Ernestina Sodi and her sister, actress Laura Zapata, were kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico City. Deliver Us from Evil is a first-person account of the living nightmare endured by the two women. Blindfolded for much of her ordeal, Ernestina Sodi learns to identify the members of this well-organized, brutal, and professional kidnapping gang by voice and smell. Plunging listeners into the dark world of crime, rage, and violence without mercy, this real-life drama culminates in a thrilling and truly unforgettable climax.

Being married to Bart Titus gave Lisa a great deal...money, position, all those things she'd thought were important. But it was also boring. A trap. He was controlling. So when she went to Mexico for a vacation, she decided to have a little fun. But sometimes fun catches up with you, and now she was being blackmailed. So one problem had become two. A clever and impatient girl like Lisa isn't going to let that situation fester. All she wants is to have a little fun, but that might require some work and planning.