cover image Corrido de Cocaine: Inside Stories of Hard Drugs, Big Money, and Short Lives

Corrido de Cocaine: Inside Stories of Hard Drugs, Big Money, and Short Lives

Arturo Carrillo Strong. Harbinger House, $17.95 (210pp) ISBN 978-0-943173-57-3

In the past decade, claims Strong, Tucson has replaced Miami as the central point of entry for drugs imported into the U.S. Himself born in the city's barrio, he was a Tucson police officer, often working undercover on narcotics cases, during the '60s and early '70s, an era that saw the drug scene evolve from ``peace, love, and flowers to guns, greed, and death.'' In this grim expose, he argues that the grinding poverty of Mexico produces people who will do almost anything to earn money. The border, he asserts, is like a sieve: marijuana, heroin and cocaine flood across it to an American public eager to consume. Photos not seen by PW . 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. (Apr.)