Ioan Grillo

Guns from America reach more than 130 countries, and inundate Mexico, with over 200,000 guns every year crossing the border and arming the drug cartels. In this groundbreaking new work of investigative journalism, master of reportage Ioan Grillo delves into the enormous black market for firearms in the Americas: he travels to gun manufacturers, strolls the aisles of gun shows and gun shops, hangs out on Baltimore street corners, talks to federal agents who have infiltrated gangs, and visits the ATF gun tracing centre in West Virginia. Along the way, Grillo lays bare the many ways that guns slip through the legal cracks and into the hands of criminals, fuelling violence among Mexico's powerful cartels and beyond.

At a time when debates around gun control are rife, this gripping exposé draws a startling a connection between guns and the global drug trade, revealing them to be key accessories in our epidemics of addiction. 

El Narco is the story of the ultraviolent criminal organizations that have turned huge areas of Mexico into a combat zone. It is a piercing portrait of a drug trade that turns ordinary men into mass murderers, as well as a diagnosis of what drives the cartels and what gives them such power. Veteran Mexico correspondent Ioan Grillo traces the gangs from their origins as smugglers to their present status as criminal empires. The narco cartels are a threat to the Mexican government, and their violence has now reached as far as North Carolina.

El Narco is required reading for anyone concerned about one of the most important news stories of the decade.