Discover the secret history behind the headlines.
The Mexican drug wars have inspired countless articles, TV shows and movies. From Breaking Bad to Sicario, El Chapo-s escapes to Trump-s tirades, this is a story we think we know. But there-s a hidden history to the biggest story of the twenty-first century.
The Dope exposes how an illicit industry that started with farmers, families and healers came to be dominated by cartels, kingpins and corruption. Benjamin T Smith traces an unforgettable cast of characters from the early twentieth century to the modern day, whose actions came to influence Mexico as we now know it. There-s Enrique Fern-ez, the borderlands trafficker who became Mexico-s first major narco and one of the first victims of the war on drugs; Eduardo -Lalo- Fern-ez, Mexico-s most prominent heroin chemist and first major cocaine importer; Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, the brilliant doctor and Marxist who tried (and failed) to decri
