cover image The Betrayal: The True Story of My Brush with Death in the World of Narcos and Launderers

The Betrayal: The True Story of My Brush with Death in the World of Narcos and Launderers

Robert Mazur. Little A, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-542032-97-1

Mazur (The Infiltrator), a former agent in several federal agencies, recounts the challenges of working undercover to bring down drug kingpins in this engrossing if overly dramatized narrative. Following his first memoir—which detailed his efforts aimed at Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel while a U.S. Customs agent—he recounts another covert operation he conducted in the 1990s. After transferring to the DEA, Mazur infiltrated Colombia’s Cali drug cartel posing as Robert Baldasare, the owner of a financial company, and amassed damning evidence against corrupt Colombian and Panamanian bankers and businessmen who were “tripping over one another to help Baldasare enhance the veils of secrecy that sheltered his movement of cocaine fortunes.” With the narrative verve of a thriller, Mazur chronicles the looming threat of sudden, violent death—his operation was compromised repeatedly by corruption within the DEA—pulling readers in from the outset with a vivid description of almost being gunned down by thugs working for Cali Cartel money launderer Luis Latorre. However, his penchant for florid prose—guns are called “death machines;” another launderer’s “pounding heart felt about to burst”—gives an unfortunately schlocky sheen to things. Still, admirers of his previous book will appreciate this thrilling real-life sequel. Agent: Robert Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Apr.)