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Wolf Boys
Wolf Boys: Two teenage assassins and Mexico's most dangerous drug cartel | Dan Slater
13 posts | 10 read | 18 to read
At first glance, Gabriel Cardona was the poster boy American teenager: great athlete, bright, handsome and charismatic. But the streets of his border town of Laredo, Texas, were poor and dangerous, and it wasn't long before Gabriel abandoned his promising future for the allure of the Zetas, a drug cartel with roots in the Mexican military. His younger friend Bart, as well as others from Gabriel's childhood, joined him in working for the Zetas, boosting cars and smuggling drugs. Within a few months they were to become some of the cartel's most-feared killers: Los Lobos, The Wolf Boys. Meanwhile, Mexican-born Detective Robert Garcia had worked hard all his life, struggling to raise his family in America. As violence spilled over the border, Detective Garcia's pursuit of the boys, and their cartel leaders, placed him face to face with the terrible consequences of a war he came to see as unwinnable. In Wolf Boys Dan Slater takes us from the Sierra Madre mountaintops to the dusty, dark alleys of Laredo, Texas, on a harrowing, often brutal journey into the heart of the Mexican drug trade. Using the stories of these two young boys, kids whose actions and lives blended teenage normalcy with monstrous barbarity, Wolf Boys uncovers the dark truth about Mexico's cartels and the tragic failure of 'the war on drugs'. The result is an astonishing, immersive, non-fiction thriller informed by extraordinary research and vivid detail.
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review
Jencunnin
Mehso-so

In a world in which conversations about immigration and walls and race are so divisive, this book felt like an exciting piece of modern history. It‘s insight to life on the border and among Mexico‘s drug cartels thrilled at times and dragged at others. Maybe not unlike the lives the book chronicled. I definitely came away with greater perspective about the subject (win) but there were definitely sections that dragged as well.

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vivastory
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Pickpick

Slater chronicles the multiple factors that led to the cartels & the ensuing atrocities. I highly recommend it for anyone hoping to better understand the drug trade.

56 likes3 stack adds
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vivastory
This post contains spoilers
show me
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vivastory
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#riotgrams
I haven't read this true story yet. Among other reasons that I picked it up, there is a blurb by Chuck Palahniuk on the back cover. Palahniuk doesn't blurb recklessly & far as I know, this is the only nonfiction book with a blurb by him.

kyraleseberg Palahniuk has never steered me wrong. If not for him, I never would've discovered Amy Hempel! 7y
49 likes1 comment
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Skeebies05
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Bailedbailed

I put the ebook on hold at the library. I couldn't handle the narrator on this one. I felt like he decided Humphrey Bogart would be the perfect voice to channel for this book. . . He was wrong. I'll read this one myself.

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ReadosaurusText
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I can't resist doing a #riotgram for #whereIread at work, since my job is primarily reading. My office is long and narrow, which is kind of weird, but it worked great to create a reading corner! When I'm not staring at a computer screen, this is where I am. I believe the technical name for this carpet is "non-profit brown." @bookriot @Powells

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lauralovesbooks1
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Pickpick

Interesting look at the drug wars on the US/Mexico border. Good mix of context material and direct stories of several American teenagers moving up in the cartels. This is an incredibly violent world and it was clear that there are no easy answers to these problems. #nonfictionnovember2016

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BookishMarginalia
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Interesting analogy 🤔

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BookishMarginalia
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(Also) currently reading -- you know books are like potato chips: I can't have just one! ☺️🤓

JonathanDunne Any good? 7y
BookishMarginalia @JonathanDunne I'm about 25% in and so far it's very readable, although it has quite a bit of detail. It doesn't seem to cover new ground (most people know about Mexican drug cartels, the drug trade, and the problems of poor American border towns), but it's still compelling. 7y
JonathanDunne I'm not sure if I should judge this book by it's cover. 7y
Mngzz This book is next on my list. I currently reside in this area and I am curious to see how the border town is portrayed to others. 7y
92 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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BookishMarginalia
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A Texas cop's dispirited realization that policing the border as a DEA task member was less about implementing policy than it was about posturing, "a symbol of state authority."

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Dvmheather
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#Readathon hour 12 and I feel like it is just starting for me. New book, hot chocolate, and Pandora dance pop radio in the living room until it is the bird's bedtime.

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AmyS
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[DELETED] 3803335244 Banning books in prison seems ridiculous. I mean their already there, what kind of trouble are books going to get them into? Lol 8y
AmyS Just noticed the link got messed up in my post so here it is again: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/the-banning-of-books-in-prisons-it... 8y
AmyS @AustenNerd16 Right? God forbid they read a story they can relate to and encourages empathy and self-improvement. That would be terrible. 8y
shawnmooney How bloody ridiculous! Grrr...! 8y
44 likes4 comments
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Aleida
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Anyone read this or anything by slater?

BookishFeminist Love your adorable buddy! 🐀 8y
Aleida Thanks BF? How do you tag someone? 8y
BookishFeminist @Aleida You hit the @ symbol and then start typing the username. A box will pop up and you click on the person you want to tag! 8y
4 likes1 stack add4 comments