
The Dope
The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade
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Narrated by:
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John Curless
About this listen
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.
Drawing on unprecedented archival research; leaked DEA, Mexican law enforcement, and cartel documents; and dozens of harrowing interviews, Smith tells a thrilling story brimming with vivid characters - from Ignacia “La Nacha” Jasso, “queen pin” of Ciudad Juárez, to Dr. Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, the crusading physician who argued that marijuana was harmless and tried to decriminalize morphine, to Harry Anslinger, the Machiavellian founder of the American Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who drummed up racist drug panics to increase his budget. Smith also profiles everyday agricultural workers, whose stories reveal both the economic benefits and the human cost of the trade.
The Dope contains many surprising conclusions about drug use and the failure of drug enforcement, all backed by new research and data. Smith explains the complicated dynamics that drive the current drug war violence, probes the US-backed policies that have inflamed the carnage, and explores corruption on both sides of the border. A dark morality tale about the American hunger for intoxication and the necessities of human survival, The Dope is essential for understanding the violence in the drug war and how decades-old myths shape Mexico in the American imagination today.
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-
Story
At first glance Gabriel Cardona is the poster-boy American teenager: great athlete, bright, handsome, and charismatic. But the streets of his border town of Laredo, Texas, are poor and dangerous, and it isn't long before Gabriel abandons his promising future for the allure of the Zetas, a drug cartel with roots in the Mexican military. His younger friend, Bart, as well as others from Gabriel's childhood join him in working for the Zetas, boosting cars and smuggling drugs, eventually catching the eye of the cartel's leadership.
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Great book
- By pattiecakes on 09-20-16
By: Dan Slater
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Fire and Blood
- A History of Mexico
- By: T. R. Fehrenbach
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 35 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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T. R. Fehrenbach brilliantly delineates the contrasts and conflicts between the many Mexicos, unraveling the history while weaving a fascinating tapestry of beauty and brutality: the Amerindians, who wrought from the vulnerable land a great indigenous Meso-American civilization by the first millennium BC; the successive reigns of Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Mexic masters, who ruled through an admirably efficient bureaucracy and the power of the priests, propitiating the capricious gods with human sacrifices; the Spanish conquistadors, and much more.
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Good book bad narration
- By M. A. Chris Raine on 03-23-19
By: T. R. Fehrenbach
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Pure Narco
- One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels
- By: Jesse Fink, Luis Navia
- Narrated by: Keith Scott
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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For a quarter century, Luis Antonio Navia worked as a high-level cocaine transporter for all of the major Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, including Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel, and flooded the United States and Europe with cocaine before his dramatic arrest in Venezuela in 2000 during the 12-nation Operation Journey. The story of Navia’s rise, fall, takedown, imprisonment, and redemption is expertly researched and told by acclaimed biographer Jesse Fink.
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don't waste your credit
- By Gregory Miles on 06-07-24
By: Jesse Fink, and others
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Blood Gun Money
- How America Arms Gangs and Cartels
- By: Ioan Grillo
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The gun control debate is revived with every mass shooting. But far more people die from gun deaths on the street corners of inner city America and across the border as Mexico’s powerful cartels battle to control the drug trade. Guns and drugs aren’t often connected in our heated discussions of gun control - but they should be. In Ioan Grillo’s groundbreaking new work of investigative journalism, he shows us this connection by following the market for guns in the Americas and how it has made the continent the most murderous on earth.
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Another great book by Ioan Grillo.
- By Cody Bad on 03-01-21
By: Ioan Grillo
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The War on Drugs
- A History
- By: David Farber - editor
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty years after President Richard Nixon declared a "War on Drugs", the United States government has spent more than a trillion dollars fighting a losing battle. In a rare multifaceted overview of the underground drug market, featuring historical and ethnographic accounts of illegal drug production, distribution, and sales, The War on Drugs: A History examines how drug-war policies contributed to the making of the carceral state, racial injustice, regulatory disasters, and a massive underground economy.
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Looking more for the gov's illegal part
- By Max Power on 07-10-22
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The Last Narco
- Inside the Hunt for El Chapo, the World's Most-Wanted Drug Lord
- By: Malcolm Beith
- Narrated by: John Allen Nelson
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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With El Chapo vulnerable as never before, Mexican and DEA authorities are closing in, and journalist Malcolm Beith, a Newsweek contributor who has spent years reporting on the drug wars, follows 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.
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Informative yet unintentionally hilarious
- By Jonathan kalkin on 09-13-10
By: Malcolm Beith
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Narco Wars
- The Gripping Story of How British Agents Infiltrated the Colombian Drug Cartels
- By: Tom Chandler
- Narrated by: Jonathon Keeble
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Tom Chandler arrived in Bogotá at the height of the cocaine boom. Pablo Escobar lay dead, the Cali Cartel had taken over much of the global supply and an avalanche of coke was poised to hit Europe. Now the British government wanted Chandler and his team to do the impossible: infiltrate the most powerful crime syndicates on earth and stop their drug shipments. It was a perilous assignment. The cartel bosses operated like a lethal multinational, with armies of hit men and myriad spies in ports, airports, police stations and government offices.
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really good
- By Oscar Shinn on 12-06-21
By: Tom Chandler
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Narcotopia
- In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA
- By: Patrick Winn
- Narrated by: Patrick Winn
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In Asia’s narcotics-producing heartland, the Wa reign supreme. They dominate the Golden Triangle, a mountainous stretch of Burma between Thailand and China. Their 30,000-strong army, wielding missiles and attack drones, makes Mexican cartels look like street gangs.
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A fantastic read on a topic I knew little about
- By Henry Cubillan on 04-22-25
By: Patrick Winn
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Kilo
- Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels—from the Jungles to the Streets
- By: Toby Muse
- Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of the Netflix show Narcos and readers of true crime, Kilo is a deeply reported account of life inside Colombia’s drug cartels, using unprecedented access in the cartels to trace a kilo of cocaine - from the fields where it is farmed, to the hit men who protect it, to the smuggling ships that bring it to American shores.
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From a Colombian to a reader
- By Gregorio Bueno on 10-07-22
By: Toby Muse
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El Chapo
- The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord
- By: Noah Hurowitz
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Not really about EL Chapo
- By edward on 07-30-21
By: Noah Hurowitz
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Midnight in Mexico
- A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness
- By: Alfredo Corchado
- Narrated by: Timothy Andres Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Noted Mexican American journalist Alfredo Corchado refuses to shrink from reporting on government corruption, murders in Juarez, or the ruthless drug cartels of Mexico. One night, Corchado received a tip that he could be the next target of the Zetas, a violent paramilitary group - and that he had 24 hours to find out if the threat was true. Midnight in Mexico is the story of one man's quest to report the truth of his country - as he races to save his own life.
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Fascinating & suspenseful historical non-fiction!
- By Ruth Barrie on 06-30-19
By: Alfredo Corchado
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Borderless by Design
- The Democrats’ Plan for One-Party Rule, and How It Aids and Abets America’s Enemies, from Soros and Davos Man to China and the Mexican Drug Cartels
- By: Troy E. Nehls
- Narrated by: Matt Thomas
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Regardless of the harm done to America and to illegals themselves, Democrats consider the power grab worth the “collateral damage.” If that weren’t bad enough, the Democrats’ open-border policies also aid and abet those who are trying to destroy America—from George Soros and “Davos Man” to China and the Mexican drug cartels."
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The True Story about the Border
- By Amazon Customer on 04-26-25
By: Troy E. Nehls
What listeners say about The Dope
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- Lawrence Schmidle
- 04-02-25
The gradual development of the drug trade organization and how the demand is all from the US.
The depth and detail of the drug trade evolution from the early 1800s to 2020. Great performance as well.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-02-21
one of my favorites
deep look in to the trouble down south glad I had the time need to finish couldn't put it down
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- Melissa Elswick
- 10-22-22
Great to a point
This is a great book that highlights many lesser known aspects of narcotics history in Mexico. I 100% recommend reading / listening to it.
From the 1800’s to the 1990’s the author does a great job of weaving a story out of what could have easily been boring statistics. There are two minor criticisms. First, once the “story” moves into the 2000’s it becomes very rushed and many facts are glossed over. My hope is that the author will write a follow on volume that focuses specifically on the time period from 1993 to current (2022). My second critique is a tendency to be hypercritical of US policy or those who execute it. While there were certainly mistakes, as with any foreign policy issue that deals with something as grand and complex as counter narcotics, the author seems to blame the US for much of what happened. I could be totally wrong and again that is my perception upon first complete listen. I think it is understood as such a complex environment that really no one person, organization, or nation can be wholly blamed. But, and I think the author would agree to a point, the current narcotics situation has evolved to really the only point it could have given the ingredients that were fed into the mix. Overall great book that I highly recommend.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Alednam A Uonopk
- 09-06-22
phucking phenomenal....
Probably going to have to play this at least thrice.... Start to finish, loved it....
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- JD
- 12-16-22
Great History of the Mexican Drug Trade
Great History of the Mexican Drug Trade, I didn't realize how long ago it started.
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- William Edwards
- 04-27-22
Only complaint is that narrator doesn’t know Spanish
The narrator is great with one fault: he says the names and words in Spanish incorrectly, beyond having an accent. While it is no flaw for any person to not know a particular language, in this context it seems necessary.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Texas87
- 11-04-22
From El Paso
I live on the US Mexico border. This excellent history lays out the growth of the narco industry over time, and how it is intertwined with the growth of the Mexican state and its political and law enforcement systems. The anarchic and deadly social space in Mexico and the US’ role in creating it is frightening. It’s happening here as well, with a huge footprint in the US. The book is terrifying. Excellent read.
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-15-23
Good listen
A lot of drug history in Mexico and the corruption in detail that I did not know
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- Anonymous User
- 09-17-21
very good
great job and I will buy another book from this author. good documentary yype book
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2 people found this helpful
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- M. Baer
- 03-29-24
Insightful
Sheds a new light on the drug war and its effects on Mexico and how the U.S. has contributed to the situation
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