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Narconomics

How to Run a Drug Cartel

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Narconomics

By: Tom Wainwright
Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
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About this listen

What drug lords learned from big business.

How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the $300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola.

And what can government learn to combat this scourge? By analyzing the cartels as companies, law enforcers might better understand how they work - and stop throwing away $100 billion a year in a futile effort to win the "war" against this global, highly organized business.

Your intrepid guide to the most exotic and brutal industry on earth is Tom Wainwright. Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Wainwright provides a fresh, innovative look into the drug trade and its 250 million customers.

The cast of characters includes "Bin Laden", the Bolivian coca guide; "Old Lin", the Salvadoran gang leader; "Starboy", the millionaire New Zealand pill maker; and a cozy Mexican grandmother who cooks blueberry pancakes while plotting murder. Along with presidents, cops, and teenage hit men, they explain such matters as the business purpose for head-to-toe tattoos, how gangs decide whether to compete or collude, and why cartels care a surprising amount about corporate social responsibility.

More than just an investigation of how drug cartels do business, Narconomics is also a blueprint for how to defeat them.

©2016 Tom Wainwright (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Economics Organised Crime Politics & Government True Crime Business Tariff Taxation Latin America Law Crime Mexico
All stars
Most relevant  
I really enjoyed it, and now have a much more nuanced view of a complex issue.

Really interesting!

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Well worth a listen. Gives a very fresh and interesting look at the world of drugs. Should be compulsory reading for politicians and policy makers!

Great book!!

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A brilliant peek behind the curtain into an industry that has affected almost everyone on the planet.

Fascinating

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Would you consider the audio edition of Narconomics to be better than the print version?

Can't answer this entirely as I dont have the print version, but I did enjoy the listen.

What did you like best about this story?

The similarities in other industries

Have you listened to any of Brian Hutchison’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No

Interesting

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absolutely loved, really interesting, did u know drug cartels sometimes deal in avocados as well lol

really interesting

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