Snatched

February 15, 2016
Porter (Blow) offers another fascinating look at the international drug trade with this account of the dramatic life of a woman he identifies only as Pilar. She’s born in Colombia to an upper-class family; her career as a flight attendant for Braniff airline leads to a fateful 1974 meeting with Ernesto Henao, the first of her two drug-smuggling husbands. Ernesto involves Pilar in his business, and she soon begins swallowing packets of cocaine to transport to Miami. Following a stint in prison, Pilar divorces Ernesto, only to marry Steven Cinnante, his former business partner. She attracts the attention of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and she ends up cooperating with them. Her unique access makes her invaluable as part of long-term intelligence gathering aimed at dealing the South American cocaine trade a fatal blow—Pilar is one of the few informants actually “talking to the kingpins directly about how to handle their currency.” In Porter’s hands, Pilar’s story will easily hook readers from start to finish; the book reads like an action-packed movie script. But the author eschews persuasiveness for pacing, with no straightforward explanation of how he corroborated information that came directly from Pilar or otherwise deemed it credible.

March 1, 2016
Pulpy account of a glamorous narcotrafficker ensnared by her past. Former Newsweek writer Porter (Columbia School of Journalism), whose previous book, Blow (1993), spawned a Johnny Depp film and slightly overlaps this tale, writes in a relaxed, comprehensible style that seems a good fit for the true-crime genre. The author constructs a sprawling, mordant narrative about the drug trade, focused on "Pilar," a noirish Central American femme fatale whose life followed several unlikely, high-risk tangents. As a rebellious, beautiful woman from an upper-class Colombian family, Pilar became involved with the burgeoning cocaine business of the 1980s, marrying two large-scale smugglers and participating in deals that permitted an addictively luxurious lifestyle. But once she'd settled in South Florida and extricated herself from the business, an imprisoned ex-husband "shopped" her to a DEA-run task force. With little resistance, she became a confidential informant in 1991, purportedly turning to the cash-laundering sideline that the cartels required, although her handlers "didn't buy the altruistic bullshit Pilar had expressed as her motivation." Still, the ambitious cops recognized Pilar's value: "Luring big operators out of their lair...that was the fantasy that captured the task force." Porter develops verisimilitude through interviews with major players, who engage in caustic recall about Pilar. Her money laundering setup worked too well, unnerving the feds, who began demanding arrests as well as intelligence. Indeed, every character seems motivated by cynicism: the macho agents seem addicted to the seized funds, while Pilar's scheme resulted in the murders of at least two middlemen. In 1995, as the increasingly complex operation was encountering friction in Washington, D.C., Pilar was kidnapped in Cali, supposedly by revolutionaries. Released after a few months of labyrinthine negotiations and eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Pilar sued the government over their negligent handling of her, only receiving a settlement in 2014. An engaging, improbable true-crime tale that underscores the grandiose futility of the drug war.

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Starred review from February 15, 2016

This amazing true story could have been written for the big screen. Pilar, an intelligent woman, gets caught up in the drug world, tries to reform, is recruited by the U.S. government as an informer, and ends up kidnapped by a cartel. That the narrative races along like a film script is a compliment to author Porter, who also wrote Blow, which was made into a movie starring Johnny Depp. Thanks to Pilar's experience, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) "asked" her to infiltrate a major cartel and assist in their war on drugs. She agreed, mainly because the government promised to pay her a high amount as a confidential informant (CI). However, after she was kidnapped and hidden for three months her CI time came to an end, and she was paid a mere fraction of what she thought she was owed. VERDICT An exciting read. The only issue is there are so many players--both in the drug cartels and law enforcement--that it gets confusing remembering who everyone is. Nevertheless, this entertaining and sad story of a woman doing what she has to in order to protect her family will satisfy fans of Blow, Donnie Brasco, and true crime stories.--Ryan Claringbole, Dept. of Public Instruction, Madison

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