Mark Bowden’s tells an incredible story about the life, business, and pursuit of Pablo Escobar. I could not believe the resources required to ultimately take him down, and the book made me appreciate the justice process in the United States. Escobar escaped capture for decades because of the mass corruption within Colombia, and the deeply corrupt government officials and law enforcement made collaboration almost impossible. 

Quotes

“Even for legitimate businessmen in Medellín there was little effective or honest law enforcement. If someone cheated you, you either accepted your losses or took steps yourself to settle the score. If you grew successful enough, you had to contend with corrupt police and government officials who wanted a piece of your profits.”

“Colombia is a land that breeds outlaws. It has always been ungovernable, a nation of wild unsullied beauty, steeped in mystery.”

“No child raised in Colombia at midcentury was immune to it. Blood flowed like the muddy red waters that rushed down from the mountains. The joke Colombians told was that God had made their land so beautiful, so rich in every natural way, that it was unfair to the rest of the world; He had evened the score by populating it with the most evil race of men.”