
Narconomics
How to Run a Drug Cartel
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Narrated by:
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Brian Hutchison
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By:
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Tom Wainwright
About this listen
What drug lords learned from big business.
How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the $300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola.
And what can government learn to combat this scourge? By analyzing the cartels as companies, law enforcers might better understand how they work - and stop throwing away $100 billion a year in a futile effort to win the "war" against this global, highly organized business.
Your intrepid guide to the most exotic and brutal industry on earth is Tom Wainwright. Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Wainwright provides a fresh, innovative look into the drug trade and its 250 million customers.
The cast of characters includes "Bin Laden", the Bolivian coca guide; "Old Lin", the Salvadoran gang leader; "Starboy", the millionaire New Zealand pill maker; and a cozy Mexican grandmother who cooks blueberry pancakes while plotting murder. Along with presidents, cops, and teenage hit men, they explain such matters as the business purpose for head-to-toe tattoos, how gangs decide whether to compete or collude, and why cartels care a surprising amount about corporate social responsibility.
More than just an investigation of how drug cartels do business, Narconomics is also a blueprint for how to defeat them.
©2016 Tom Wainwright (P)2016 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
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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Killing Pablo
- The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Mark Bowden
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Killing Pablo is the inside story of the brutal rise and violent fall of Colombian cocaine cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. Also from Bowden: the best selling Black Hawk Down.
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Relevant Accessible History
- By Bob on 03-25-03
By: Mark Bowden
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American Desperado
- My Life - From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset
- By: Jon Roberts, Evan Wright
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Erik Davies, Mark Deakins, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2008 veteran journalist Evan Wright, acclaimed for his New York Times best-selling book Generation Kill and co-writer of the Emmy-winning HBO series it spawned, began a series of conversations with super-criminal Jon Roberts, star of the fabulously successful documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Those conversations would last three years, during which time Wright came to realize that Roberts was much more than the de-facto “transportation chief” of the Medellin Cartel during the 1980s, much more than a facilitator of a national drug epidemic.
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BEST First Person (realistic) Criminal Account
- By aaron on 12-05-11
By: Jon Roberts, and others
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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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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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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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Pablo Escobar
- Beyond Narcos
- By: Shaun Attwood
- Narrated by: Max Tilney
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was a devoted family man and a psychopathic killer; a terrible enemy, yet a wonderful friend. While donating millions to the poor, he bombed and tortured his enemies - some had their eyeballs removed with hot spoons. Through ruthless cunning and America's insatiable appetite for cocaine, he became a multi-billionaire, who lived in a $100-million house with its own zoo.
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Much more than Netflix docs; war on drugs exposed
- By Dragonfoureyes on 10-04-17
By: Shaun Attwood
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Narconomics (Spanish Edition)
- Cómo administrar un cartel de la droga [How to Manage a Drug Cartel]
- By: Tom Wright, Bradley Hope
- Narrated by: Adriano Gazón
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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¿Cómo puede ser exitoso (y sobrevivir) el jefe de una organización criminal que se está iniciando en el multimillonario negocio de los estupefacientes? Aprendiendo de los mejores, por supuesto. Desde la creación del valor de marca hasta poner a punto el servicio al cliente, las personas encargadas de administrar los cárteles de drogas han estudiado atentamente las tácticas y estrategias de corporaciones como Walmart, McDonald's y Coca-Cola.
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Mucho que aprender
- By Anonymous User on 12-10-24
By: Tom Wright, and others
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Drug Lord
- The True Story of Pablo Acosta: The Life and Death of a Mexican Kingpin
- By: Terrence E. Poppa
- Narrated by: Armando Duran
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Not just another cartel book
- By Consumer 14 on 09-05-20
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The Flow of Illicit Funds
- A Case Study Approach to Anti–Money Laundering Compliance
- By: Ola M. Tucker
- Narrated by: Janet Metzger
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Money laundering is a serious crime that presents a heightened, yet underrated, global threat. Although often thought of as a victimless crime, money laundering significantly impacts the global financial system, which leads to further crime, corruption, human exploitation, and environmental degradation and causes tremendous human suffering, especially in the most impoverished populations.
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My favorite so far on this topic
- By Philo on 01-08-23
By: Ola M. Tucker
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The Naked Civil Servant
- By: Quentin Crisp, Michael Holroyd - preface
- Narrated by: Christian Coulson
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1931, gay liberation was not a movement—it was simply unthinkable. But in that year, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to "come out" as a homosexual. This exhibitionist with the henna-dyed hair was harassed, ridiculed and beaten. Nevertheless, he claimed his right to be himself—whatever the consequences. The Naked Civil Servant is both a comic masterpiece and a unique testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
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The humor and honesty
- By s j garrick on 04-21-25
By: Quentin Crisp, and others
What listeners say about Narconomics
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- Amelia
- 12-15-16
Educational and Entertaining
I CANNOT recommend this book enough!! SERIOUSLY! It is the most entertaining and intellectual book/study I've ever read. It compares the dark world of drugs, cartels, gangs, human trafficking, etc. to corporations and basic business practices to shed a light on the economic impact of decisions that both sides are making, and how the real world cause and effects don't always correlate with the logical solutions being implemented. We attack supply instead of addressing demand. We focus on enforcement instead of prevention or treatment. We save money now but pay exponentially for it later. It's studies like this that we need to educate ourselves and each other, to make informed decisions to create and change public policy that will actually make a difference. Numbers don't lie.
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- Lannette
- 02-12-17
Hand the narrator a cleaver, he's a butcher!
if you are sensitive to mispronounced words (Spanish) then don't bother with this book. I am flabbergasted that an audio book would be recorded with the narrator not knowing how to pronounce the words he is reading. most takes place in Mexico, and they chose a person who can't roll his r's or pronounce a simple word like Medillan. So that greatly distracted me from being able to absorb the details. Other than that the book is interesting. Having lived in Mexico, going on 22 years now, I did find some things interesting and a few sensationalized, which is to be expected. Overall it is an intelligent read if you can get past the butchering. Really Audible and author or whomever picks the narrators. You should all be ashamed! I think I may buy the print version.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michel
- 11-02-16
good intro to the drug world
This book provides an insight into the underground world and compares it to the business world. The result, similar resemblance. Some times it skips from one subject to another without notice.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Doug Bryce
- 12-13-17
great book
an excellent book if you want a deeper understanding of market forces in the open, grey, and black markets.. highly recommended.
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- Mina Tory
- 12-10-20
Interesting
Nothing particularly groundbreaking or new here from a business or solutions perspective, but an engaging behind the scenes look at the evolution and inner workings of the illegal drug industry nonetheless. The exploration of the effectiveness and broader impact of the different approaches taken by gangs and cartels in various regions was especially interesting.
Narration was also...interesting. While his voice was pleasant and engaging to listen to, I was surprised at the decision to use a narrator who couldn't pronounce even the most basic Spanish words, and also couldn't pronounce the word OxyContin (instead calling it "oxycotton," which would be hilarious were it not so serious) when both feature so prominently in the book. Comical as it often was (I laughed out loud several times), the mispronciations did frequently distract me from the actual narrative and result in having to go back and re-listen more than a few times.
Overall an enjoyable read/listen.
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- Jake Keet
- 06-25-17
Excellent book.
Great fact based analysis of the war on drugs and its inefficiencies. It can be slightly repetitive, but overwhelms with the amount of information on display.
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- PimpMacDaddyBoy
- 12-22-18
Thought-provoking and Contemporarily Relevant
Given the same tactics and perspectives on drugs over the last 40 years, it is refreshing hearing the perspective of an economist on possible solutions to what are clearly major issues. Drugs obviously create numerous problems and a sense of discomfort to discuss, but a more reasoned and scientific approach to management is definitely necessary.
The one complaint I have is regarding the narrator and his inability to pronounce Spanish words, but overall his performance was fine.
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- Paul
- 08-12-21
informative and entertaining
through interesting interviews and entertaining retellings of drug history the author manages to make a compelling point and inform the listener at the same time. recommended for all who want to learn more about the economics, history and future of (illicit) drugs.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-08-19
Great! Entertaining. Informative. Recommended.
Great! One of the most entertaining non-fiction I have read the last year.
It's easy to read and with entertaining comparisons.
Plus the narration is good.
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- JRA
- 09-22-18
Pretty solid, good insight
Author did a great job of explaining and tying drug cartels to regular business. The basis for both are really the same but it is really cool to hear his stories and interviews. Was a pretty solid book, REALLY GOOD narrator.
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