marmarta's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Very interesting and informative, but too repetitive and the author is too enamored with his own writing.
guuran62's review against another edition
4.0
https://boklaadan.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/zerozerozero/
pharmdad2007's review against another edition
4.0
This book took me completely by surprise. It may be the first nonfiction book originally published in a foreign language that I've read. But it is the kind of nonfiction that is so interesting that it reads like fiction. super interesting and in depth look into the world of cocaine trafficking.
ala_daynova's review against another edition
5.0
"I'm not afraid they'll trample me.
Trampled grass soon becomes a path."
- Blaga Dimitrova
❤️
Trampled grass soon becomes a path."
- Blaga Dimitrova
❤️
justaguy's review against another edition
4.0
Yo Cocaine
Wow, this book is rich with information that I haven’t seen before. It is a little refreshing to learn and heard those stories. How little did I know that cocaine is really basically penetrating the entire lives of everybody! I think the author hit many right bells about the people who revolve around the cocaine industry. This is good because I’m seeing many aspects coming out from this book. My only disappointment would be near the end! Where things seem to be more murky and good enough to wrap the book up. Don’t do that…finish it elegantly! Also, I don’t think the author ever mentioned that if he already came out of hiding from all those threats?
Wow, this book is rich with information that I haven’t seen before. It is a little refreshing to learn and heard those stories. How little did I know that cocaine is really basically penetrating the entire lives of everybody! I think the author hit many right bells about the people who revolve around the cocaine industry. This is good because I’m seeing many aspects coming out from this book. My only disappointment would be near the end! Where things seem to be more murky and good enough to wrap the book up. Don’t do that…finish it elegantly! Also, I don’t think the author ever mentioned that if he already came out of hiding from all those threats?
harius_b's review against another edition
5.0
Last week today my Professor/Mentor (who specialises amongst others criminal law) and I had one of our infrequent but enjoyable conversations. We both love reading and happened to touch upon criminal organisations. In HK that would be the triads. Anyway, he gave me Roberto Saviano's ZeroZeroZero to check out. I suspected Prof thought I wouldn't read it, but I made sure to read it every day depsite my looming exams.
What to say about this book? It is one of those reads you don't ever imagine reading — at least for me. I'm the sort who loves history, fantasy, sci-fi, law and historical fictions. Crime and drugs are almost non-existent. I do however respect fate if it pushes a book towards my direction. And I took this to be one such book.
Saviano writes his expertise on the international cocaine business (for that's what it is; a professional multinational body of companies selling one product: cocaine) in a style devoid of emotional voidness characteristic of historical or analytical accounts of phenoma both past and present. Instead, he meshes together the prices, the products, the techniques, the routes, the people, their personalities, their tendencies to influence, negotiate, threaten, push, pursuade, and ultimately kill, or eventually be killed (barring being arrested or extradited that is) — with his personal history on the subject, his fears, nightmares, foreboding feeling that the more he shouts — louder and louder — the less noise he makes in the ears of people. I recommend those who picks up any of Saviano's books to make sure to know his own story — only then will his work be truly understood, felt and treasured.
I recommend anyone who wishes to understand the world to read this book. Indeed, it seems our world today has more in common with the cocaine market. Perhaps the world is the cocaine market. Perhaps not. No doubt however is the fact that cocaine is a huge and substantial part of the global economy, especially global finance — that to think (as I thought and many still mistakenly think) cocaine is on the periphery, one that is handled by our governments, is to be wilfully blind to the truth. The white powder is not simply the chalk we are used to as youngsters in classrooms. It is the addictive kind that is hidden in plain sight. Either hidden to be smuggled, distributed, retailed or consumed. Or already consumed; hidden within friends, family, strangers.
This book is one of those books. For anyone reading this review, I wish you're like me — so far safe from the horrors of cocaine and its business and effects. And I hope you'll do Saviano a favour and read his words, chew it, and overcome the pain in your stomach. You'll understand what I mean.
What to say about this book? It is one of those reads you don't ever imagine reading — at least for me. I'm the sort who loves history, fantasy, sci-fi, law and historical fictions. Crime and drugs are almost non-existent. I do however respect fate if it pushes a book towards my direction. And I took this to be one such book.
Saviano writes his expertise on the international cocaine business (for that's what it is; a professional multinational body of companies selling one product: cocaine) in a style devoid of emotional voidness characteristic of historical or analytical accounts of phenoma both past and present. Instead, he meshes together the prices, the products, the techniques, the routes, the people, their personalities, their tendencies to influence, negotiate, threaten, push, pursuade, and ultimately kill, or eventually be killed (barring being arrested or extradited that is) — with his personal history on the subject, his fears, nightmares, foreboding feeling that the more he shouts — louder and louder — the less noise he makes in the ears of people. I recommend those who picks up any of Saviano's books to make sure to know his own story — only then will his work be truly understood, felt and treasured.
I recommend anyone who wishes to understand the world to read this book. Indeed, it seems our world today has more in common with the cocaine market. Perhaps the world is the cocaine market. Perhaps not. No doubt however is the fact that cocaine is a huge and substantial part of the global economy, especially global finance — that to think (as I thought and many still mistakenly think) cocaine is on the periphery, one that is handled by our governments, is to be wilfully blind to the truth. The white powder is not simply the chalk we are used to as youngsters in classrooms. It is the addictive kind that is hidden in plain sight. Either hidden to be smuggled, distributed, retailed or consumed. Or already consumed; hidden within friends, family, strangers.
This book is one of those books. For anyone reading this review, I wish you're like me — so far safe from the horrors of cocaine and its business and effects. And I hope you'll do Saviano a favour and read his words, chew it, and overcome the pain in your stomach. You'll understand what I mean.
lpm100's review against another edition
2.0
Dated information repackaged as though it's not.
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020
Lots of things to think about this book, which was in DIRE need of an editor.
**The book is a babbling, unfocused disaster. The author is so busy trying to write with the Hunter-Thompson-style "tough guy" prose that he forgets to try to bring across the information in a way that is easy for the reader to follow and absorb.
**None of this information is particularly new (for instance: one of the dealers in this book--Helmer Herrera-- has been dead since 1998), and there have been books such as "Freakonomics" and "Dreamland" that detail the business aspects of the drug trade. (And let's be clear that that is what it is -- a business.)
We all know that when there is an avalanche, there was that first snowflake that caused it. But that particular snowflake is less important than the initial conditions that were such that one snowflake could cause so much damage.
Well known scenario: There is a country that has weak law enforcement, into whose vacuums the cartels step. And then that leader gets killed, and someone else tries to take his place. (p. 276)
-Who didn't know that the drug cartels are a gigantic game of King of the Hill? (There is one on top, but there are always people under him that are trying to find a way to be number one when he is arrested / killed / displaced by some other means.)
Again: Are all the details as important as the initial conditions?
**This author tries to make us believe that he has gone undercover and found so much sensitive information that he had to go into hiding, but it appears that all of this information is public knowledge. (Every one of these things was able to be looked up on Wikipedia. And a lot of the cartels that were mentioned in this book have gone out of business as of the writing of this book--which is referencing a lot of events from 20 and 25 years ago.)
-Who didn't know that the prospect of having a job of the president is what makes a company get maximum mileage out of vice presidents?
-We also knew that the best way to contaminate your law enforcement is to put them up against drug cartels, who are better funded, better organized, and have their own survival on the line.
-We know that drug cartels don't allow their own members to use what they sell. (Talk about actions speaking louder than words.)
Is any government anywhere a match for the levels of organization of drug cartel businesses?
*Could* any government anywhere be a match for it?
**********
As a service to readers of this review (and as a way to go back and summarize / organize what I have read), a one sentence synopsis of every chapter.
1. Waffle that tries to burnish the authors Tough Guy Credentials/tone.
2. The tragic story of Kiki Camarena shows how important Mexican cartels have become.
3. Skirmishes between Mexican drug cartels.
4. Mexican drug cartels slaughter lots of innocent people to assert their authority in various Mexican provinces.
5. Drug cartels have their own military forces, often composed of ex-military personnel of this or that country.
6. Vicious killings of rival cartel members by Los Zetas.
7. Cocaine distribution networks at street level.
8. Details of the drug trade in Colombia.
9. The Italian diaspora/ mafia as a mechanism to connect the European drug trade to the South American.
10. Representative profiles of 2 cocaine managers.
11. A convoluted chapter on the convoluted process of money laundering.
12. Drug czars step into the vacuum created by political instability resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union.
13. Cocaine can be shipped by sea, and it is an EXTREMELY logistically complex process that requires PhD engineer levels of planning.
14. African morass and weak/corrupt governments make Africa an ideal place for (European/ South American) drug traffickers, and it is all brokered by Nigerian criminals who make use of abundant and low-valued/low-priced African life as mules.
15. Scattered and bizarre thoughts about living under police protection. (Which is for his work on the mafia and not the drug trade.)
16. The drug war as seen through the eyes of a drug-sniffing dog.
17. A documentary about drug gangs made by a photojournalist who paid for his documentary with his life.
18. Various stories, including those of Griselda Blanco (an extremely ugly and psychotic female drug trafficker worth 2 billion) and Sandra Avila Beltran (another female drug kingpin).
19. More babbling about what a Tough Guy he is because he does "investigative" journalism on the topic of drugs.
**********
The tragedy of this ridiculous farce is that these cartels only exist because drugs are outlawed. In terms of human lives it defies belief: 164,000 people killed *just* in Mexico from 2007 to 2014. More than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined--almost half as many as have died in Syria's never-ending Civil War.
Some of this morass is the special case of Central / Latin American: They have had difficulty running governments for a very long time. And political instability and gangs stepping into the vacuum created by problems that the government was incompetent to solve are present even in books-written-a-half-century-ago that describe the events of a century ago. (James Michener's "Centennial," a book that has nothing to do with drugs.)
The cartels themselves have a lot of strange features. Some of them are religious movements. Some of them are nationalist. Some of them are leftist.
Anything, I guess in order to give ideological window dressing.
Verdict: I can only weakly recommend this book:
1. The information is too dated, and takes too much effort too fish for;
2. There are other, better-edited books that do a better job focusing on the business aspects of the drug trade with a minimum of prattle.
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020
Lots of things to think about this book, which was in DIRE need of an editor.
**The book is a babbling, unfocused disaster. The author is so busy trying to write with the Hunter-Thompson-style "tough guy" prose that he forgets to try to bring across the information in a way that is easy for the reader to follow and absorb.
**None of this information is particularly new (for instance: one of the dealers in this book--Helmer Herrera-- has been dead since 1998), and there have been books such as "Freakonomics" and "Dreamland" that detail the business aspects of the drug trade. (And let's be clear that that is what it is -- a business.)
We all know that when there is an avalanche, there was that first snowflake that caused it. But that particular snowflake is less important than the initial conditions that were such that one snowflake could cause so much damage.
Well known scenario: There is a country that has weak law enforcement, into whose vacuums the cartels step. And then that leader gets killed, and someone else tries to take his place. (p. 276)
-Who didn't know that the drug cartels are a gigantic game of King of the Hill? (There is one on top, but there are always people under him that are trying to find a way to be number one when he is arrested / killed / displaced by some other means.)
Again: Are all the details as important as the initial conditions?
**This author tries to make us believe that he has gone undercover and found so much sensitive information that he had to go into hiding, but it appears that all of this information is public knowledge. (Every one of these things was able to be looked up on Wikipedia. And a lot of the cartels that were mentioned in this book have gone out of business as of the writing of this book--which is referencing a lot of events from 20 and 25 years ago.)
-Who didn't know that the prospect of having a job of the president is what makes a company get maximum mileage out of vice presidents?
-We also knew that the best way to contaminate your law enforcement is to put them up against drug cartels, who are better funded, better organized, and have their own survival on the line.
-We know that drug cartels don't allow their own members to use what they sell. (Talk about actions speaking louder than words.)
Is any government anywhere a match for the levels of organization of drug cartel businesses?
*Could* any government anywhere be a match for it?
**********
As a service to readers of this review (and as a way to go back and summarize / organize what I have read), a one sentence synopsis of every chapter.
1. Waffle that tries to burnish the authors Tough Guy Credentials/tone.
2. The tragic story of Kiki Camarena shows how important Mexican cartels have become.
3. Skirmishes between Mexican drug cartels.
4. Mexican drug cartels slaughter lots of innocent people to assert their authority in various Mexican provinces.
5. Drug cartels have their own military forces, often composed of ex-military personnel of this or that country.
6. Vicious killings of rival cartel members by Los Zetas.
7. Cocaine distribution networks at street level.
8. Details of the drug trade in Colombia.
9. The Italian diaspora/ mafia as a mechanism to connect the European drug trade to the South American.
10. Representative profiles of 2 cocaine managers.
11. A convoluted chapter on the convoluted process of money laundering.
12. Drug czars step into the vacuum created by political instability resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union.
13. Cocaine can be shipped by sea, and it is an EXTREMELY logistically complex process that requires PhD engineer levels of planning.
14. African morass and weak/corrupt governments make Africa an ideal place for (European/ South American) drug traffickers, and it is all brokered by Nigerian criminals who make use of abundant and low-valued/low-priced African life as mules.
15. Scattered and bizarre thoughts about living under police protection. (Which is for his work on the mafia and not the drug trade.)
16. The drug war as seen through the eyes of a drug-sniffing dog.
17. A documentary about drug gangs made by a photojournalist who paid for his documentary with his life.
18. Various stories, including those of Griselda Blanco (an extremely ugly and psychotic female drug trafficker worth 2 billion) and Sandra Avila Beltran (another female drug kingpin).
19. More babbling about what a Tough Guy he is because he does "investigative" journalism on the topic of drugs.
**********
The tragedy of this ridiculous farce is that these cartels only exist because drugs are outlawed. In terms of human lives it defies belief: 164,000 people killed *just* in Mexico from 2007 to 2014. More than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined--almost half as many as have died in Syria's never-ending Civil War.
Some of this morass is the special case of Central / Latin American: They have had difficulty running governments for a very long time. And political instability and gangs stepping into the vacuum created by problems that the government was incompetent to solve are present even in books-written-a-half-century-ago that describe the events of a century ago. (James Michener's "Centennial," a book that has nothing to do with drugs.)
The cartels themselves have a lot of strange features. Some of them are religious movements. Some of them are nationalist. Some of them are leftist.
Anything, I guess in order to give ideological window dressing.
Verdict: I can only weakly recommend this book:
1. The information is too dated, and takes too much effort too fish for;
2. There are other, better-edited books that do a better job focusing on the business aspects of the drug trade with a minimum of prattle.