Writing a book that uncovers the deepest secrets of Latin American cartels and shares them with millions of readers is not an undertaking every writer would contemplate, but Roberto Saviano knows this path all too well. The Italian journalist and writer works in a highly distinctive field. Over the course of his career, he has accumulated invaluable information about the operations of society’s most elusive groups, earning, as a sinister courtesy, permanent police protection and the constant need to relocate to prevent those whose secrets he has exposed from carrying out their threats to kill him.
Following the publication of Gomorrah, his international bestseller on the Italian mafias, Saviano has once again produced a work requiring considerable courage and a wide network of trustworthy contacts. ZeroZeroZero follows his efforts to unravel new forms of criminal organization, this time focusing on the Americas and the trafficking routes for marijuana, opium, and, above all, cocaine. The book examines the dynamics between conventional states and their parallel counterparts, narco-states, tracing the routes that remain invisible to us even as they pass before our eyes every day: the routes of drug trafficking. Saviano possesses a profound knowledge of this parallel market’s history, from its origins to the political and family relationships that sustain it, bringing to light perspectives that are rarely discussed or remain entirely unfamiliar to many readers. Through interviews, documentary and content analysis, and relentless investigation, the journalist creates a compelling work filled with questions and answers, although the latter do not necessarily resolve the former.
About the Book
The book is divided into seven parts, all entitled “Cocaine,” containing twenty chapters in total. Each chapter serves a distinct narrative purpose and, within its particular stage of the history of drug trafficking, provides a link to the next chapter and to the book’s overarching objective. Clearly, Saviano does not merely seek to open readers’ eyes, although this is among the greatest achievements of his writing and investigations. He also wants them to question the cycles that sustain drug trafficking, the extent to which they may contribute to it, and how detached we remain from circumstances of deprivation and death. We debate whether to legalize drugs currently deemed illicit without understanding the actual implications of these discussions, which so often revolve around morality rather than health and, more importantly, human lives.
The book opens with a connection to Gomorrah, presenting a dialogue among members of the Italian mafia in something resembling a seminar, instructing Latin Americans responsible for drug trafficking in the United States in their methods and codes of conduct. From this point, Saviano begins to map the origins of drug trafficking in Latin America, with particular emphasis on Mexico. He traces its development from the first opium farms, established to support the Second World War effort by supplying soldiers with morphine, to the moment when these farmers were left with vast opium plantations and had to find some way to turn their crops back into a livelihood. Through the book, readers feel personally acquainted not only with the founding figures of drug trafficking, including El Chapo, El Padrino, Don Neto, the Leyvas, and El Mata Amigos, but also with the largest marijuana plantation
ever established, La Bufala.
Beyond the history of expanding narcotics exports from these Latin American countries, another factor comes into focus: state failure. Relations between local populations and drug traffickers are exceptionally close. Those who provide food, shelter, and employment command considerable respect, even when they do so through illicit means. Particularly between the 1970s and the 2010s, cartels became synonymous with security for local populations. Where the state fails to provide the basic conditions for survival, these groups arrive with abundant resources, gaining the trust of those around them. Even though conflicts between cartels have killed thousands of innocent people and local residents—not to mention the lives lost in attempts to transport goods across borders, confrontations with military authorities, and other circumstances—they continue to enjoy popular support. This was evident, for example, in 2014, when El Chapo was arrested yet remained a celebrated figure.
Through numerous examples, the book shows that, despite extensive efforts to control drug trafficking and limit cartels’ territorial power—with initial emphasis on US and Mexican strategies—these groups continue to demonstrate their strength and expand their influence, overcoming every barrier placed before them. Moreover, the purchasing of silence, and even information, from officials governing entire cities and states is widespread. Cartels alternately coerce authorities into turning a blind eye to their activities and pay enormous sums for the information and interventions needed to ensure that inspections or the burning of plantations do not disrupt the illicit drug trade.
It also becomes clear that Saviano’s knowledge of every route, cartel leader, government investigation, cocaine-related diplomatic relationship, and even coca cultivation technique stems from an addiction to the drug. This is not a physical or metabolic dependence: he does not consume cocaine itself, but rather its entire cycle. He describes his inability to escape the compulsive pursuit of ever more information, participation in events, encounters with people, and knowledge of trafficking routes. This addiction, in turn, spills beyond the pages and captivates readers, drawing us into the narrative while fostering an immense thirst to discover where each detail leads—and it invariably leads somewhere closer to home than we might imagine. In this context, the author explains that, as an anthropologist, he has always felt compelled to observe and record the events unfolding before him, striving not to interfere with the outcomes and rituals he
witnesses. Unfortunately, he has been unable to secure the same noninterference in return: his dangerous profession now costs him, and his family, their freedom.
Among many other aspects, the journalist emphasizes how drug-trafficking organizations function as families, understood as communities of shared interests and networks of protection
extending beyond blood ties. Everyone knows and protects everyone else; within a cartel, one member’s family becomes the family of all, effacing the individual in service to that particular collective. What makes this perspective especially interesting is how closely, and seemingly paradoxically, this dynamic resembles the workings of specialized military units. Through his encounters with members of tactical units and militias, Saviano observes that the same family-like bonds and practices of mutual protection operate among groups tasked with pursuing cartels, spies, and other enemies identified by states. Ultimately, they emerge as two sides of the same coin, although perhaps because they face away from one another, they fail to recognize their resemblance.
It is also impossible to overlook how clearly these figures in the drug trade, these founding fathers of the cartels, understood their importance to the societies around them. The narrative continually prompts us to question our personal values and the extent to which we agree or disagree with some of these groups’ actions. They see themselves as martyrs, often assuming responsibilities that governments should fulfill but cannot—hence the designation “narco-state.” Gradually, drug trafficking has evolved, investing ever more heavily in education and technology to support its operations, both areas in which many governments in the Global South fall short and whose absence local populations keenly feel. Yet the familial and authoritarian dynamic remains unchanged; only certain operational details shift. Hiring serving or former military personnel who already possess tactical training is far cheaper than training people who have never even held a pistol. The focus remains on production and logistical improvements, effectively outsourcing basic operational functions such as security.
Roberto Saviano places himself in constant danger by writing this book, just
as he did with the publication of Gomorrah. Yet publication alone does not account for his vulnerability. What places him at greatest risk is the very act of seeking information, asking about names and activities, exposing the movements of respected public figures whose reputations might otherwise remain intact, and entering a wide range of institutions to challenge them simply by possessing privileged information gathered from witnesses. The subtle implications of this fact almost transform an investigative, informative work into a horror story. Watching him penetrate every aspect of drug trafficking and expose himself in the process, in order to inform the world how things really work, is an agonizing experience. With every interview recounted, every name mentioned, and every location revealed, readers find themselves hoping above all that the author will ultimately remain safe.
After extensive journeys, both physical and investigative, through
numerous countries, we find the journalist returning to Italy to examine the interdependent relationships among the dispersed actors responsible for international drug trafficking. Having dissected the drug trade in the Americas, he returns to his roots, demonstrating the relationships between actors in the Americas and their Italian counterparts and tracing the latter’s first arrival on the continent. In an exceptional narrative turn, this brings us back to the book’s opening and to his earlier bestseller. The world is governed by states and businesspeople, and the world of drugs is no exception. The leading figures in drug trafficking are genuine entrepreneurs, and Saviano describes their professional capabilities and lifestyles with precision and skill, while recalling their considerable popular appeal. The author also makes explicit something many already know—but the obvious still needs to be stated: those at the very top will not be imprisoned, at least not in the same way or with the same lengthy sentences as their employees and subordinates. This holds true across every sphere of contemporary society. Once again, Saviano encourages readers to question their assumptions, raising underlying issues and recurring debates in the contemporary world and making readers feel involved in the book’s intellectual undertaking.
ZeroZeroZero has immeasurable potential. It is an archipelago of
historical, social, anthropological, economic, and other forms of knowledge, connecting with every aspect of readers’ lives. At some point, every reader will encounter something recognizable: a familiar fact, a subject of intellectual interest, or even a more personal circumstance that establishes the work as essential reading for the twenty-first century. Saviano’s critical approach deserves admiration, as does his ability to illuminate the many dimensions of a reality that runs parallel to so many lives yet intersects with them far more often than we imagine. Readers gradually become attached to the narrative, to its characters—real people—and, above all, to the author’s journey, increasingly wondering about his well-being and the
paths that have taken him so deeply into this complex world.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the book is addictive. Like its author, readers can become addicted to its
stories: facts, tales, legends, data, and rhetoric of many kinds. Throughout, Saviano reminds us that every coin has two sides. Institutions are corrupt, and banks’ efforts to curb drug trafficking extend only to lenient oversight; after all, they cannot afford to lose their largest investors, much less their most substantial funds. In a world where people in one country must buy cattle bones to make soup while others spend a worker’s annual salary on a bottle of wine, Saviano observes that “the world’s financial power centers survive thanks to powder”: the powder that drives the banker, the bus driver, and the cargo ships, and ultimately keeps the world’s economic and commercial systems moving. The Russian mafia, the Italian mafia, the cartels of the Americas, international banks, shell companies, and the transatlantic drug market all weave an intricate web across the world’s greatest river: the drug trade.