Wolf Boys

July 25, 2016
Journalist Slater (Love in a Time of Algorithms) offers a grim, gripping account of the lives of two boys caught up in the drug wars. In a dramatic prologue set in 2006, the reader is introduced to 19-year-old Gabriel Cardona, a soldier for the drug cartel known as the Company, who is in the midst of pep talk with a neophyte hit man. But before Gabriel and his comrade can go into action, he's arrested. Slater then backtracks to the mid-1990s in Laredo, Tex., "the poorest city in America" and Gabriel's hometown, to delineate how Gabriel went from an ordinary child to a murderous would-be manager for narcotics traffickers. Young Gabriel is depicted as a model student with perfect attendance and advanced reading skills. The details of his childhood are made all the more poignant by knowing where he will end up. The book also provides the story of one of Gabriel's cohorts, known as Bart because of his resemblance to the Simpsons character. Bart, who "carried the rage of a poor boy whose family couldn't feed him," turned to gang life at the age of 12, and ended up killing more than 30 people. Slater effectively alternates between Gabriel's perspective (based off extensive correspondence with his subject) and that of dedicated cop Robert Garcia, who worked tirelessly to capture and convict the two young men. Slater ends on a depressing note as he is led to troubling conclusions "about evil as a natural product of human consciousness." Slater's effective use of historical context, including tracing the roots of the Mexican drug trade back to the 16th century following the conquest of the Aztec Empire, elevates this above similar accounts..

July 1, 2016
A grisly yet compelling tale of impoverished Mexican-American youth molded into assassins by Los Zetas, the fearsome drug cartel.Former Wall Street Journal reporter Slater (Love in the Time of Algorithms: What Technology Does to Meeting and Mating, 2013) adeptly develops a sprawling narrative regarding the "spillover" of cartel violence around 2005 into border cities like Laredo, Texas, where a long smuggling tradition was transformed by ruthless competition and NAFTA's amplification of poverty: "All contras and defectors in Texas had to be eliminated, Zeta leadership decided. It could only be done with a strong presence on the U.S. side." In a milieu of well-developed characters on both sides of the law, Slater focuses on two strong personalities: Mexican-born homicide detective Robert Garcia, and Gabriel Cardona, who'd plead guilty to several murders before age 20. Garcia twice arrested Cardona, yet the Zetas bonded him out to commit more shootings. Slater chillingly replicates Cardona's perspective and experience, documenting the arc of his recruitment and training based on research and correspondence. While he follows this season of mayhem, as orchestrated by the Zetas hierarchy, he also looks at the political and historical narratives of the border, portraying a long-term corrupt, destructive relationship between the two nations regarding drugs, trade, and labor. "The U.S. government was eager to minimize the spillover narrative," writes the author. Notwithstanding such priorities, Garcia's team ultimately wiretapped and apprehended Cardona's cell of youthful assassins in their Laredo safe house, securing long sentences for them. Still, this narrative triumph seems checked by a cynicism beyond the Zetas' brutality. Even Garcia concludes that narcotics interdiction required "willful ignorance," while his colleagues seemed addicted to the benefits of seized funds and career advancement. Slater covers this difficult social landscape with an empathetic eye and careful prose, vividly rendering a border region of "extreme poverty and garish wealth...elaborate courtesy and low-barbarian violence." Engrossing and readable yet nightmarish vision of a hyperviolent and corporatized narcotics industry, seducing a new generation with minimal alternatives.

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Starred review from July 1, 2016

Raw, gut-wrenching, and deflating, journalist Slater's (Love in the Time of Algorithms) investigation into Mexican drug cartel activity will give readers pause. Gabriel Cardona, a teenager growing up in Laredo, TX, had a promising future before he was sucked into the alluring lifestyle of a drug smuggler and enforcer for a drug cartel. Concurrently, Det. Robert Garcia, having spent years working with the DEA, began a murder investigation that led him to Cardona. The intermingling stories involve a laundry list of nefarious, terrifying, and unfortunately real-life characters, and explain Mexico's drug history and the law enforcement officials who have tried to quell the spillover onto American soil. There is a feeling of uncertainty and disappointment that law enforcement efforts to stop these groups are futile. Beyond that, this is a cautionary tale for youth who may be marginalized and feel they have few other options than to join cartels. Slater is adept at filling in details and weaving a story, all the while impressing upon readers Garcia's anguish and exhaustion. Similarly, he explains his long correspondence with Cardona and deftly portrays him as both villain and victim. VERDICT A must-read for fans of true crime and investigative journalism.--Kaitlin Malixi, formerly at Virginia Beach P.L.

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