{"product_id":"9781602865839","title":"Taking Down Chapo: The Life and Times of a Drug Warrior","description":"\u003cb\u003eDEA Agent Jack Riley, \"[Chicago's] \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003emost famous federal agent since the days of \u003ci\u003eThe Untouchables\u003c\/i\u003e\" (\u003c\/b\u003e-\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003etells the inside story of his 30-year hunt for the drug kingpin known as El Chapo, and reveals the true causes of the American opioid epidemic. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eJack Riley, grandson of a Chicago copper known for his fists, was born to be a drug warrior. Joaquín \"El Chapo\" Guzmán Loera, who farmed marijuana and opium poppies as a teenager in Mexico's Sierra Madre range, was born to be a drug lord. Their worlds collided when Riley, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, was promoted to lead the fight against Chapo on the border at El Paso. When the narco-trafficker put a price on Riley's head-it suddenly got personal. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRiley's thrilling memoir tracks his rise from an undercover street agent who locked up wise guys, bikers, and corrupt cops, to his later years as the hard-charging DEA boss whose burning ambition was to capture the most wanted man in the world. Riley takes readers behind the scenes to meet John Lynch, his undercover persona, a BMW-driving yuppie who risks his life to broker coke deals with Chicago criminals in the 1980s. Three decades later, the tough-talking Riley is navigating the shark-infested waters of Washington, D.C. and dealing with corrupt law enforcement agencies in Mexico as he hunts for Chapo.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRiley doesn't pull punches when he reveals that Mexican cops ignored his warnings that Chapo was preparing to break out of prison in 2014. And he doesn't disguise his ill feelings about Sean Penn secretly visiting Chapo in 2015, which prompted officials to postpone a promising raid on a mountaintop hideout in order to guarantee the actor's safety.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the end, Riley achieves his greatest victory and Chapo faces his darkest fear when he's extradited to face U.S. justice.The good guy wins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA fascinating memoir of life inside the drug wars, this is also a timely issue book: having overseen nearly every major mission to capture foreign drug kingpins in the last twenty years, Riley is uniquely positioned to explain why the war on drugs failed, and how druglords like El Chapo helped fuel Americans' dependence on opioids and heroin. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hachette Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47031368384752,"sku":"9781602865839","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781602865839_p0.jpg?v=1763815201","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781602865839","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}