Wolf Boys

Two American Teenagers and Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel

De: Dan Slater

Narrado por: Pete Simonelli

The true story of two American teenagers turned cartel assassins—and the Mexican American detective who fought to stop them. Wolf Boys is “a hell of a story…undeniably gripping” (The New York Times), a harrowing nonfiction thriller that reads like a crime novel but is rooted in extraordinary investigative reporting.

Journalist Dan Slater tells the unforgettable tale of Gabriel Cardona, a bright and promising Laredo, Texas, teenager who becomes one of the youngest hitmen for Los Zetas, Mexico’s most violent drug cartel. Lured by power, money, and survival in a border town overrun with smuggling and gang warfare, Gabriel joins a network of juvenile recruits tasked with carrying out executions on both sides of the US–Mexico border.

As cartel warfare spills into Texas, the story collides with that of Detective Robert Garcia, a Mexican-born homicide investigator who has dedicated his life to keeping cartel violence out of the United States.

With chilling precision and emotional depth, Wolf Boys exposes how teens become soldiers in a global drug war, and how law enforcement, outmatched and outgunned, is forced to confront a rising wave of youth-led organized crime.

At once intimate and explosive, Wolf Boys is a devastating account of the real-life consequences of America’s war on drugs—and the price paid by its youngest victims.

Slow, but interesting

This story delves into a world many books do not. For that, I'm happy I spent so much time listening. However, it also has a ton of mundane, uninteresting details that probably could've been left out.

Gripping and tragic with annoying narration.

This story is a travesty of failed systems north and south of the border. The Wild West reincarnated. How unfortunate.

Similarly unfortunate is your choice of narrator. Surely you can find someone truly bilingual who is able to accurately pronounce the Spanish words as well as the English. The blatant errors were annoying.

Amazing.

This story is incredible and the entire world should read it. I will recommend this to everyone.

Great book

Any additional comments?

As a native of Nuevo Laredo, I consider this book to be very informative. There is no person in both of the cities in which the book is based (Nuevo Laredo in México and Laredo in the US) that haven’t been affected directly or indirectly by what has happened because of Mexico’s and the US war on drugs, and having this historical document written by an outsider like Mr. Slater, is of great value since local news will not touch this kind of story.

It is haunting to learn some of the plots that these Wolf Boys planned. So many places that are mentioned here are regular every day places that any citizen will go to; clubs, restaurants, movies, it makes you think hard. What if was there?

The story is brutal, and it is a confirmation of what residents of both cities have heard for many, many years. Mr. Slater did not hold anything on this book, so be careful since it is a bloody, brutal and devastating story that narrates the life of these killers, the organization they worked for, and the hell that some of us citizens have lived.

Really well done

The writing, the narration, all of it. Top notch. I’ve known about the cartel child-soldier situation peripherally for years and having heard the book, I now have a much greater understanding of this insane phenomenon. It really is a glimpse into hell on earth. Highly recommended.