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Drug Empires

Crime World

An American Drug Lord in Acapulco

How a middle-class jock from a Texas border town became La Barbie, one of the most ruthless and feared cartel leaders in Mexico.

Mary Cuddehe, Vanessa Grigoriadis Rolling Stone Sep 2011 25min Permalink

Crime World

The Designers and the Don

How two interior decorators took the fall for the Cali Cartel.

Gus Garcia-Roberts USA Today Nov 2019 50min Permalink

Business Crime

The Perfect Dealer

Customer feedback on the New York City coke dealing industry.

Elizabeth Spiers Gawker Jan 2003 10min Permalink

Crime

King of the Snitches: The Fashion Photographer Who Duped Drug Lords and the DEA

Baruch Vega ran a scheme that ensnared Colombian cocaine kingpins and gave him a life of luxury. Then one put a price on his head.

Zeke Faux Bloomberg Businessweek Jul 2019 20min Permalink

Best Article Crime World

The Sicario: A Juárez Hit Man Speaks

The author travels to Mexico to meet a retired assassin and kidnapper, now himself a target of the cartels that once employed him.

Charles Bowden Harper's Apr 2009 35min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Coronado High

How a group of hippie surfers and a former Spanish teacher built the largest weed-smuggling empire on the West Coast.

Read more

Hear Bearman discuss this story on the Longform Podcast.

Joshuah Bearman The Atavist Magazine Sep 2013 1h35min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Kid Cannabis

The rise and fall of a chubby Idaho pizza delivery boy turned weed kingpin.

Mark Binelli Rolling Stone Oct 2005 20min Permalink

Best Article Crime World

The Disappeared

The story of September 26, 2014, the day 43 Mexican students went missing.

John Gibler California Sunday Dec 2014 Permalink

Crime Sports

The Drug Runners

The Tarahumara became famous for running incredibly long distances. In recent years, cartels have exploited their talents by forcing them to ferry drugs into America. Now they’re running for their lives.

Ryan Goldberg Texas Monthly Jul 2017 30min Permalink

Best Article Crime World

How America Lost the War on Drugs

An anatomy of a failure.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells Rolling Stone Dec 2007 1h Permalink

Best Article Crime World

City of Fear

How PCC, once an inmate soccer team and now Brazil’s most notorious prison gang, coordinated seven days of riots throughout São Paulo using mobile phones.

William Langewiesche Vanity Fair Apr 2007 40min Permalink

Crime World

The Hunt for El Chapo

How the world’s most notorious drug lord was captured.

Previously: Patrick Radden Keefe on the Longform Podcast.

Patrick Radden Keefe New Yorker May 2014 40min Permalink

Business Crime Tech

The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

First they found his server, then they found his name. But if they couldn’t catch him with his laptop open, the whole thing would fall apart.

Joshuah Bearman Wired May 2015 15min Permalink

Crime World

Ghosts of Iguala

Investigating what Mexico’s government really knows about disappearance of dozens of students.

  1. Part 1: How 43 Students Disappeared in the Night

  2. Part 2: Case Unravels in Disappearance of 43 Students

Ryan Devereaux The Intercept May 2015 45min Permalink

Crime Tech

The Untold Story of Silk Road (Part 1)

How Ross Ulbricht went from idealistic used-book seller to murderous drug kingpin.

Joshuah Bearman Wired Apr 2015 Permalink

Crime

A Killing in Pocahontas

The murder of a 34-year-old by a wig-wearing figure traces back to meth, an FBI sting and a former municipal judge who once sent a live copperhead snake to a foe through the U.S. mail.

Will Stephenson Arkansas Times Apr 2015 20min Permalink

Crime

The Dukes of Oxy

Doug Dodd was a drug kingpin in high school. And now, like the narrator of a Scorcese film, he wants to tell his own story.

Guy Lawson Rolling Stone Apr 2015 30min Permalink

Crime

The Great Cocaine Treasure Hunt

A man in Puerto Rico stumbles on a brick of cocaine, and rather than sell it he decides to bury it. Others, hearing his story, cook up a plan to retrieve it.

Daniel Riley GQ Mar 2015 Permalink

Crime

The White Devil Kingpin

A white gangster immerses himself in Asian culture to lead a Chinatown gang. He even learns to pour tea correctly.

David Kushner Rolling Stone Feb 2015 25min Permalink

Crime

"I Wouldn’t Mind If He Was Executed"

The transcript of chats between Silk Road boss Ross Ulbricht and a man he believes to be a Hell’s Angel who agrees to supply “hitters” to carry out 5 assassinations.

Andy Greenberg Wired Feb 2015 25min Permalink

Crime

America's Dirtiest Cops

How an elite anti-narcotics task force became the most brazen drug thieves on the Texas border.

Josh Eells Rolling Stone Jan 2015 30min Permalink

Business Crime

Mainline Street

What does it take for heroin to grab hold in the small, remote towns of America? Like any business, it starts with one man and an entrepreneurial dream.

Read more

“If you’d like to relive your horrible moment, if you want people to know what actually happened, talk to me. I will tell your story.” — Sean Flynn on the Longform Podcast

Sean Flynn GQ Jan 2015 20min Permalink

Crime

The Belfast Operation

Bringing down a cocaine empire in 1980s rural Maine.

Brian Kevin Down East Jan 2015 25min Permalink

Crime World

The Chopping Houses

Fears of witchcraft leave a trail of dismembered bodies in Buenaventura, Colombia.

Juan Camilo Maldonado Vice News Dec 2014 15min Permalink

Crime

Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State

After 13 years of war, the United States has helped create a nation ruled by drug lords.

Matthieu Aikins Rolling Stone Dec 2014 25min Permalink

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