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The Source: 'Gangster Warlords' Traces State Power In Face Of Drug Trafficking Money

Bloomsbury Press

Hundreds of billions of dollars are generated from the illegal drug trade in the Americas. A new book looks at the havoc that money is wreaking on countries trying to combat illegal drugs. In his book "Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America" Iaon Grillo shows Criminal kingpins in Mexico and Brazil executing a business sowing instability, violence and crime throughout the region. 

Grillo, who has been covering Mexico and Latin America for 15 years, depicts a new kind of drug lord, as he writes in Time "[They] are no longer just drug traffickers, but a weird hybrid of criminal CEO, rock star and paramilitary general."

From the migrant border surge on Texas Southern border to political dissarray, abductions, and failing abatement strategies in Latin America, Grillo argues a huge toll is being paid by these countries and the time for radical action is now.

Grillo will be speaking January 21 at the Houston World Affairs Council, at Kirksey Architecture.

Guest:

  • Ioan Grillo, journalist and author of "Gangster Warlords"
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Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org