Kings of Cocaine

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Kings of Cocaine (Magill Book Reviews)

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, cocaine became the most popular and seemingly most pervasive illegal drug in the United States, and state and federal drug officials moved to combat it. What they did not comprehend at the time was the sheer volume being shipped into the country: up to $2 billion each year. Even more inconceivable to law enforcement was that four men controlled all this. Those four men made up the Medellin Cartel, and KINGS OF COCAINE is the shocking, true account of their drug empire.

The industrial city of Medellin, Colombia, was their stronghold. Using shrewd business sense backed by brutal violence, they forged a virtual monopoly on cocaine, a vertically integrated combine of production, transportation, and distribution. They bought islands in the Caribbean, assassinated police and government officials in Colombia, and terrorized entire neighborhoods in Miami and other United States cities.

American authorities became aware of the cartel only gradually, alerted by an epidemic of drug-related violence in southern Florida and by the staggering size of cocaine busts, amounting to thousands of pounds. As information was pieced together, the cartel and its leaders, especially the flamboyant Carlos Lehder, were targeted for arrest and conviction by American and Colombian authorities. With arrogant disdain, the cartel bought or shot its way free. In cahoots with Colombian guerrillas, they even stormed the national Palace of Justice in Bogota.

KINGS OF COCAINE shows how cartel leaders shipped tons of cocaine into the United States, and how they conspired with officials of Panama and Nicaragua in the process. The book, the product of months of investigation by its authors, reveals the slow and sometimes inept American response to the threat, a response at times hampered by illegal covert operations from inside the White House itself.

The war against drugs has claimed much attention and many victims during the recent years. Those Americans who are truly concerned with finding a solution--including our national “drug czar"--would do well to ponder the lessons to be found in KINGS OF COCAINE.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. LXXXV, April 1, 1989, p.1334.

Kirkus Review, LVII, February 15, 1989, p.269.

Library Journal. CXIV, May 1, 1989, p.89.

National Review. XLI, June 2, 1989, p.47.

The New York Review of Books. XXXVI, March 30, 1989, p.22.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIV, April 30, 1989, p.13.

Newsweek. CXIII, May 15, 1989, p.78.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXV, February 17, 1989, p.60.

The Washington Post Book World. XIX, May 21, 1989, p.1.

Washington Times. April 18, 1989, p. F4.

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