“Truth is always stranger than fiction. . . A stunning, riveting and extraordinary real-life story of life in the shadows." –#1 International Bestselling Author Don Winslow
The gripping true story, that reads like fiction, of how legendary FBI Special Agent Martin Suarez went deep undercover—and lived a double-life for years—to infiltrate Colombia's most insidious drug cartels.
Martin Suarez, a legend within the FBI who specialized in Colombian drug cartels, holds the record for the longest time spent continuously undercover. As his alter ego Manny, Martin followed the unspoken rules of the cartels: He knew the right lingo to use, the right whiskey to drink, the right watch to wear, the wrong questions to ask. He smuggled over $1 billion worth of cocaine into the United States for the Medellín Cartel and, as his cover deepened, he graduated to become a high-level money launderer for the North Coast Cartel. He helped wash tens of millions of dollars worth of drug money, ensnaring himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse while simultaneously exposing the Black Market Peso Exchange, the most insidious money laundering apparatus in the world that involved billionaire bankers, blue-chip American corporations, and even the President of Colombia himself.
Martin was raised by a father who served in the military and valorized the nobility of the FBI, and Martin stopped at nothing to allow his father to live vicariously through his son. He wanted nothing more than to make his father proud—and to be a good husband to his wife, and a loving father to his two young sons. He became a man caught between two worlds—that of an undercover agent who wanted to rid the world of its evils, but also that of a family man who was trying not to lose himself in this dark, brutal underworld that captivated the globe during the War on Drugs.
And yet his worlds begin to collide as danger creeps dangerously close to his doorstep when his cover is blown and a cartel-hired sicario comes hunting for him.
Inside the Cartel is told with the pulse-racing action of a Hollywood blockbuster. This is the story of Suarez and his time undercover and how maintaining the trust of hardened criminals can start to tear away at even the most principled soldier.
How does one man fool the world’s most dangerous criminals for years without losing himself in the process?
- A High-Stakes Double-Life: For years, FBI Agent Martin Suarez was Manny, a trusted cartel associate who drank the right whiskey, used the right lingo, and smuggled over $1 billion in cocaine for the MedellĂn Cartel.
- Exposing a Global Money Laundering Scheme: Go inside the Black Market Peso Exchange, the insidious financial apparatus that washed tens of millions in drug money through blue-chip corporations and billionaire bankers.
- The Brutal World of Colombian Cartels: A raw, firsthand account of infiltrating the most powerful and ruthless narco-empires during the peak of the War on Drugs, where one wrong move means a brutal death.
- The Ultimate Price of Deception: The gripping story of what happens when your cover is blown, a sicario is sent to kill you, and the two worlds you’ve built collide with devastating consequences.