Narconomics

How to Run a Drug Cartel

By: Tom Wainwright

Narrated by: Brian Hutchison

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.

Eye Opening!!

I learned a lot. The author did a good job of presenting a complicated subject in a very understandable way. It's a time when everyone should think about this journalist's trek thru the narcotic fields and cities.

Great book

One of the best books I've read on this subject. A new way of looking at TCOs and how to combat them. Also, great book for the audio format.

Great Book

Rare to hear anyone think about the illegal business world (and how to combat it) through such a logical lens. Highly recommend this audiobook!

Excellent book.

This book is completely unbiased and full of good information. Great for those who like reading about economics.

Outstanding Book

As the opioid epidemic continues, this is a great frame of reference for understanding the criminal economy.