The Bullet or the Bribe Taking Down Colombia's Cali Drug Cartel

Subjects:

• Crime & Justice » True Crime
• Law » Criminal Law

Reviews:

• Chepesiuk's book is the product of extensive research and interviews with dozens of DEA, FBI, US Customs agents, the New York state police, and various individuals in Colombia. It is the most detailed study of the murky world of narcotics traffickers this reviewer has seen....This well-written volume is extensively footnoted and contains a useful index, bibliography, and chronology of the Cali Cartel. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate collections and above.
  —Choice June 2004
• This meticulously research book reflects both the author's knowledge and his range of contacts with excerpts from dozens of interviews. It is obviously the work of someone who is an expert in investigative journalism.
  —Trends in Organized Crime Winter 2004
• [B]y 1999 Columbia "had become the premier coca-cultivating country in the world, producing more coca leaf than Peru and Bolivia combined." Maybe that's why Chepesiuk's close look at the Cali Cartel is so important. Drug trafficking has yet to play out, and until it does, (if it ever does), we had best be as informed about it as possible.
  —Charlotte Observer February 2, 2004
• Mr. Chespesuik's story of the takedown of this empire is a tribute to all of the law enforcement officers involved in the long campaign. His book should be mandatory reading in every law enforcement academy in the nation.
  —The Forum November 14, 2003
• The Bullet or the Bribe takes an inside look at how anti-drug forces finally brought down the world's most powerful drug trafficking mafia. Using firsthand accounts, interviews and Drug Enforcement Administration records, Chepesiuk weaves an epic tale of big business, greed, violence and corruption.
  —New York Law Journal February 8, 2004

• Endorsement From Gerald Posner
  author, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Ron Chepesiuk has turned his investigative talents to a fascinating story of how the anit-drug forces finally brought down the world's most powerful drug trafficking mafia. A story of big business, greed, violence, and corruption, Chepesiuk brings the readers inside the drug traffickers' empire as well as the frustrating and long battle waged by drug agents. Through his meticulous reporting, he has delivered an important addition to the literature on the great drug cartels, and in the process, provided key insights about what could make or break the current war on terrorism.
• Endorsement From Hank Petroski
  L.A.P.D. Detective-Sergeant (Ret.): This book follows a complex criminal organization and investigation of that organization. The magnitude of the organization is overwhelming. . . . Ron is able to explain the inner workings of a massive criminal empire and the investigation of that empire so that it is easy to understand. I could not put the book down until I finished reading it.
• Endorsement From Dan E. Moldea
  author, The Killing of Robert R. Kennedy: The Bullet or the Bribe is a courageous and powerful presentation about a much discussed but little understood subject. Responsibly researched and documented, author Ron Chepesiuk makes his nonfiction read like fiction--proving, once again, that the secret to good writing is good storytelling. In short, Chepesiuk tells a good story.
• Endorsement From Terry O'Neill
  Attorney and Counselor at Law: International organized crime and terrorism have emerged in our time as the nemesis of civilization. Ron Chepesiuk's powerful telling of the epic tale of the rise and destruction of the Cali Cartel proves that these dragons can be slain. . . . This book should be mandatory reading in every police academy in America.
• Endorsement From William Mante
  Senior Investigator (Ret.), New York State Police, KNEU: The author effectively capsulized, chapter by chapter, the law enforcement and political strategies targeting the Cali Cartel and the Cartel's response to those efforts. . . . Having worked the Cali Cartel from 1985 through 1995 on the streets of New York City, I wish I had his sources.
• Endorsement From Tracey Eaton
  Latin American Bureau Chief, The Dallas Morning News: Offers an intimate, never-before-seen glimpse into a shadowy underworld of sophisticated and murderous drug traffickers. . . . They eventually met their downfall, as Chepesiuk's vivid portrayal shows, but some cartel leaders have been set free and threaten to rise again.
• Endorsement From Ben Gilman
  Member of Congress (1973-2003) and former Chairman, House International Relations Committee: Chepesiuk's fascinating, factual history of the rise and fall of the world's most extensive illicit drug cartel is a timely, pertinent lesson for our nation's ongoing war, not only against drugs but against the international terrorist network, many of whom derive their resources from drug trafficking.
• Endorsement From James W. McMahon
  Superintendent, New York State Police: Ron Chepesiuk does an outstanding job of describing the inner workings of the Cali Cartel, one of the most notorious criminal enterprises in history.

Table of Contents:

• Dedication
• Quotation
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Prologue: The Labs That Made It Snow
• The Rise
• Getting Started
• New York, New York
• Chepe Does His Thing
• Growing the Criminal Enterprise
• Heating Up
• Dirty Laundry
• Going Multinational
• The War of the Cartels
• Exit the King
• The Fall
• Breakthrough
• Submission to Justice
• The Narco Cassettes
• A Man of Peace
• Exit the Señor
• Take Down
• The Epilogue
• What Goes Around
• A Chronology of the Cali Cartel
• Bibliography