Marching Powder

A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail

By: Thomas McFadden, Rusty Young

Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney, Rusty Young

A shocking exposé of life inside Bolivia's infamous San Pedro Prison, uncovered by an intrepid young backpacker turned accidental inmate.

Rusty Young was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia's notorious San Pedro prison. Intrigued, the young Australian journalist went to La Paz and joined one of Thomas's illegal tours. They formed an instant friendship and then became partners in an attempt to record Thomas's experiences in the jail. Rusty bribed the guards to allow him to stay and for the next three months he lived inside the prison, sharing a cell with Thomas and recording one of the strangest and most compelling prison stories of all time. The result is Marching Powder.

This book establishes that San Pedro is not your average prison. Inmates are expected to buy their cells from real estate agents. Others run shops and restaurants. Women and children live with imprisoned family members. It is a place where corrupt politicians and drug lords live in luxury apartments, while the poorest prisoners are subjected to squalor and deprivation. Violence is a constant threat, and sections of San Pedro that echo with the sound of children by day house some of Bolivia's busiest cocaine laboratories by night. In San Pedro, cocaine—"Bolivian marching powder"—makes life bearable. Even the prison cat is addicted.

Yet Marching Powder is also the tale of friendship, a place where horror is countered by humor and cruelty and compassion can inhabit the same cell. This is cutting-edge travel-writing and a fascinating account of infiltration into the South American drug culture.

This audiobook is read by Adrian Mulraney and Rusty Young, with audio production by Bolinda Publishing. It was published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

©2004 Thomas McFadden and Rusty Young (P)2026 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

The fascinating story telling

The combination of culture clash with a taboo subject like drug dealing and prison was fascinating

Corruption at its finest.

Hard to describe because it is unbelievable. The writing is solid. The story is well told since it is truly insane.

Just WOW!

Very intense story about one of the most charismatic people I’ve read about. Excellent story and well written.

Insane Story

What an insane story. I am shocked but not shocked that a corrupt country has a jail being ran like this.