Gangster Warlords

By: Ioan Grillo

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

In a ranch south of Texas, the man known as The Executioner dumps 500 body parts in metal barrels.

In Brazil's biggest city, a mysterious prisoner orders hit men to gun down 41 police officers and prison guards in two days.

In Southern Mexico a meth maker is venerated as a saint while enforcing Old Testament justice on his enemies.

A new kind of criminal kingpin has arisen: part CEO, part terrorist, and part rock star, unleashing guerrilla attacks, strong-arming governments, and taking over much of the world's trade in narcotics, guns, and humans. What they do affects you now - from the gas in your car to the gold in your jewelry to the tens of thousands of Latin Americans calling for refugee status in the US.

Gangster Warlords is the first definitive account of the crime wars now wracking Central and South America and the Caribbean, regions largely abandoned by the US after the Cold War.

Author of the critically acclaimed El Narco, Ioan Grillo has covered Latin America since 2001 and gained access to every level of the cartel chain of command in what he calls the new battlefields of the Americas. Moving between militia-controlled ghettos and the halls of top policy makers, Grillo provides a disturbing new understanding of a war that has spiraled out of control - one that people across the political spectrum need to confront now.

©2016 Ioan Grillo (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Grillo's investigations into the cokehead brokers, dealers and professional killers who manage the supply and demand of cocaine involves him in a degree of danger.... An absorbing work of reportage." ( Daily Telegraph)
"Grillo is a breathtakingly intrepid reporter, diving in where police fear to tread, seeking out men who wouldn't hesitate to kill him.... A grim, gripping book." (Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday)

Good analysis and interpretation, but...

I have worked for many years as a social scientist in Western Mexico. The description and analysis rings true with a few exceptions. Grillo centers narco activity in Michoacán as if it were only occurring in the tierra caliente (yet his cases jump around the state from the Chapala lowlands; the temperate region; and the tropical lowlands as if they were one in the same.

The narrator also manages to mangle Spanish. It’s remarkable to me that there wasn’t a great narrator available with a good working knowledge of Spanish pronunciation. Otherwise he does a sound job.

The worst narrator for the book

The content of this book is fascinating, fabulously written and compelling. Providing a narrative for emerging economies that should be required reading for any politician wanting to make a change. BUT it is abysmally narrated. What possessed the producers to use this plummy, over the top British voice. It's sounds like it's been narrated by an outdated aristocrat and not a journalist familiar with current affairs. I should've rather bought the book!

hard to keep up with story line

it was and ok listen jumped from on gang to the next couldn't really tell when he started talking about a new gang

A Framework for Drug Work

Easy to follow explaination of how and why drug organizations of the western hemisphere rise to power, using a handful of rich examples from latin america and the carribean, most notably the usually neglected Jamaica and Brazil.

Disappointed—not his best

His Narco book was WAYY better but the narrator absolutely does NOT fit the subject or topic of the book (British accent man). It was severely monotone and made me tired. Also the story itself was a little all over the place. Not his best book by far. But his El Narco book he wrote earlier was fantastic!

Interesting Twist And Turns

The narrator was awesome the insight into other worlds poverty stricken environment was eye opening this is a mist have to make other cultures and races know the world is not flat its round just because you ate dinner last night doesn't mean everyone else did ....

Overall great listen

Its a great book full of interesting stories. Narrator is kinda bland but doesn't ruin anything from the content of the book cause it's fascinating. But probably not something you'd wanna listen to if you were trying to stay awake on a long car ride. I'd reccomend it.

Wow! Incredible!

Well researched and well written. Learned quite a bit and I have been in this field for many years. Great work.

amazing book by ioan grillo!

Grillo continues his perfect explanation of these gangs and how we got in this situation

Love it!

loved the story but I didn't like the fake Jamaican accent. but other than that I loved it!

the greatest insight you could have!

phenomenal delivery and more depth into a secret world that would be impenetrable to the normal person

Intriguing, enlightening and horrifying.

I honesty thought Grillo might have been pulling my leg at some points in this book. Such as when he described the written litanies of prayer members of one Mexican drug cartel say to their founder, or the fervent socialist selling rocks of crack to the people he claims to be fighting for. But a few minutes on google confirms all these to be true, adding surreal colour to the doleful litany of murder and torture that forms the backdrop to all the people and groups he profiles, and is careful not to glamorize.

He also does an excellent job of conveying to someone who comes from a completely different world, why these loathsome bands of thugs and predators often enjoy a surprising degree of support in the communities they blight. Thriving not only through fear, but by offering a ghastly alternative government to impoverished people who feel utterly abandoned and betrayed by the authorities.

This book is well researched (at obvious risk to the author and many of his sources), well told, and opened my eyes to a world I knew little about. It's a depressing commentary on the western media that we hear almost nothing about a whole slew of countries that are in a state of de-facto civil war between gangsters and government.

The one slight criticism I have is that I would have liked a smattering of global context to get a better idea of whether this is a phenomenon more pronounced in Latin America than elsewhere.

Narrator is also very good.

absolutely shite

my daughter could have narrated this better. I honestly turned it off after 60 seconds

A worrying picture

A real insight into drugs, gangs, killings, criminals etc
A shame that it is a few years old.

Brilliant!!

I absolutely loved this book! The narration is awesome too! This book is exceptional in subject matter! Some of the descriptions of the violence and gun fights are fantastic. Superb book!!

Sincere and Thoughtful Exploration of the Horror

This book picks up and expands upon the theme explored in the chapter "Insurgency" from Ioan Grillo's previous book, El Narco. It sits nicely in between this first book, about the rise of Mexican cartels specifically, and his most recent one about the not-so-well-hidden role of American guns in perpetuating the chaos.

Grillo is an authentic and sincere journalist, the real deal. His thesis is that modern drug gangs are a new type of organisation that defy existing categories we typically use to understand them. He draws commonalities from the stories of the Red Commando in Brazil, the Shower Posse in Jamaica, MS-13 in the Northern Triangle and the Knights Templar in Michoacán, Mexico. I found this thesis to be well argued and persuasive.

They are criminal gangs, but on such an unprecedented scale that they have thoroughly corrupted the nation state. Once convicted and imprisoned, their influence grows rather than shrinks. The leaders are warlords, seeking to control the local territory and replacing the functions of government, but only to clear space for their operations. They use terrorist violence, but without any real political ambitions. They are not armies, but they are better armed than most, and it's not a war although the body count and normalisation of extreme violence is the same.

The drug wars have become so normalised now, reduced to a type of ghoulish entertainment to binge on Netflix. I was about halfway through watching Narcos Mexico when I realised it was little more than glamourised narco violence porn and another type of profiteering from the misery of real people who live in the middle of all this depravity.

In looking for more information on the drug wars, I've discovered the reality is far, far more disturbing than we generally see on screen. There has been a vicious circle of desensitisation to violence, leading to ever increasing levels of it to control, terrorise and act as a perverse currency of status. For some of these gangsters, they have fallen back to a medieval indifference to suffering, and the violence they perpetrate is by civilised standards - whatever that might mean - simply batsh*t insane.

What's happening in Latin America is a humanitarian disaster, and a source of global destabilisation. This book explores the pervasive rot across the region, the necessity of a new approach, and what that might be. I believe it to be an important contribution to the debate.

Good Book but Same Old Same Old

Very comprehensive book but depressing in that there seems to be a lot of books all saying the same thing, but the problem has been going on for decades and nothing changes. I feel like I've read enough about the drug trade in South America. I greatly admire the author for getting so involved & living in Mexico - I wonder why a journalist would risk his life to report on it. Time for legalisation or at least de-criminalisation of drugs otherwise tens of thousands will continue to be killed.

Shocking facts about the drug wars in LATAM

I have been on several trips to Latin America and crossed the border from Texas to Mexico multiple times to work with my customers there. I had seen things on the street that were unbelievable and safety was always on my mind. I thought I knew the stories. However this book really shook me on the scale and hopelessness of the violence. Its a well researched book and well narrated. Unfortunately there are no heroes in this story

Mixed feelings

The content was great, highly informative and detailed.
The narrator themselves and very good too. However, occasionally the juxtaposition between the two is insurmountable. I think a better narrator could have been picked for this topic.

Great read

Very interesting full of lots of information over 3 different place in South America brilliant