Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade, by Robert Sabbag (HC, 1976, $2.50)
Starting in 1974, Sabbag spent two years following Zachary Swan from NYC, to Colombia, and then to his capture and trial for selling cocaine. Some of what Sabbag was told was myth. Some was true. He had to figure out which was which. Sabbag offers his thanks to the people that helped him with his reporting, those that talked to him, and the many others "who helped him stay alive and out of jail when occasionally taking the assignment to the edge." This author has heaps more guts than I do.
**SOLD**
Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler, by Jerry Kamstra (PB, 1975, $0.50)
"California dope smuggler Jerry Kamstra [got] $5,000 to set up a photographic expedition to secret marijuana fields in Mexico's mountainous state of Guerrero." He eventually gets caught at the Mexican border with 200 kilos of weed. Oops.
Included here is The Smuggler's Scrapbook, 32 pages of photos, by Eugene Anthony. "For the first time a step by step photojournal of scoring weed in the Mexican highlands."
**SOLD**
Killing Pablo: the Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, by Mark Bowden (TPB, 2002, $1.50)
Pablo Escobar was the head of Colombia's cocaine cartel in 1993. US and Colombian officials hunted him. 16 months and hundreds of millions of dollars later he was found and killed, which ended his drug cartel, but not the drug trade.
Crime does not pay, except when it does. Read these books and enjoy them as an adventure, or read them and weep. I hope it is the latter. For myself, I have never forgotten the pain drugs caused, when in 1971 my friend's boyfriend became heavily addicted to heroin.
Look for these books on the new non-fiction table. Avail. 8/30.
