I Am the Market: How to Smuggle Cocaine by the Ton, in Five Easy Lessons
If La Repubblica journalist Rastello�s account of today�s cocaine trade has an overly Italian bent, or if his central conceit often distracts�he tells the tale in the wise-guy voice of an apparent composite of smugglers he met�this is still a compelling, credible explanation of cocaine�s clout in the global economy, how and where it is produced, and how it is distributed. For anyone connected to the trade, creativity is key, from expanding the growing areas of the coca leaf to diabolical ways of transporting the drug (as a paste inside electric cable, or by soaking clothes in it for later removal) and moving the cash used to pay for it. There might be a wickedly vicarious thrill to reading this story, but Rastello�s narrator was caught in the end. More important, the trade as an issue can only be genuinely engaged when it is understood, and for that, readers have Rastello to thank. --Alan Moores