The Infiltrator: My Secret Life Inside the Dirty Banks Behind Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel

Very interesting but at the same time disappointing to learn how corrupt the international banking operations are. Thank God for people like Robert Mazur.

The author worked his way into the highest echelons of money laundering for the Columbian cartels (events happened in 80's). He was an undercover US Customs agent, and it is fascinating to read how he created a new identity and took on a new persona. He eventually was dealing with the people who reported directly to Pablo Escobar and other top cartel kingpins. He tricked them into giving him millions of dollars, which he deposited into Bank of Credit and Commerce (BCCI), which was founded by members of the Saudi royal family and Pakinstanis with heavy connections to Pakistan's intelligence agency. The book reads like a fast paced thriller, with the author jetting from Miami to LA, NYC, Paris and London, with bankers salivating to get the dirty drug money. BCCI was protected by Clark Clifford, who was on its board of directors, and his law firm, which knew it was taking dirty money. BCCI also had connections to the CIA, and early in the investigation the author's superiors warned him to stay away from that subject.The book builds to a climax where the drug dealers and dirty bankers are invited to the author's wedding in Tampa, where they are busted. Mazur also does a good job of showing the emotional toll of working undercover - almost living with the criminals he's investigating, who trust him and invite him into their homes to meet their wives and children, knowing all along that he will betray them. As this is happening, his own family life is neglected and his wife resents him.The author makes clear that BCCI was just one dirty bank of many, and that some big name American banks are just as dirty but got away with it.This is a good book that could have been better with some editing. After about the 20th meeting with bankers discussing moving dirty money it gets a little repetitive. But overall, a good, entertaining and informative read.

Non-Fiction at its finest. The Infiltrator reads like the best of Ludlum or Forsyth at the height of their careers, yet it is true. The insight into the world of the cartels, the drug trade and money laundering is absolutely amazing - a first class education. However, it is the harsh light of reality that is shown on international banking, politics and power that is the real lesson.The Infiltrator is just a great read. It is more than any fan of crime, adventure, biography, international affairs, politics, and business could ever ask. Yet the lingering lesson is the sheer amount of money involved in illegal drugs. The story covers the mid to later 80's when the Columbian cartels were at the height of their power and the billions in cash generated from their business is nothing short of staggering - and that is in 1980's dollars. [It does make one stop and think about what it is like today and how much more money is in play. How much more sophisticated and far reaching it all is - chilling] The cast of characters is a whos who of dictators, criminals, bankers and business. Again, nothing short of stunning in the education of the reality in money, politics and power - how it is made, moved, laundered, used and ultimately abused.The only challenge is quite literally keeping it all, the people, locations and ties, straight. It is an incredibly complex story with a diverse and vast group of international players and locations. Diagrams, charts, something of that nature would have been helpful for me, but overall it is a minor issue.A thank you to Robert Mazur for sharing the story and for doing what he has done over his career - a silent and unknown hero. I was fortunate enough to hear an interview of Mazur on the radio and had to get this book. I am happy I did.

The Hollywood version pulls too many punches and doesn't explore the deeper implications.As an undercover agent for the U.S. Customs Service, Robert Mazur conducted a remarkably successful money laundering investigation. It led to a well-publicized bust involving Colombian drug traffickers and complicit bankers, including an international banking giant BCCI. This bank was appropriately nicknamed "Bank of Crooks and Criminals International" by Robert Gates when he was acting as the CIA's Deputy Director. BCCI openly catered to numerous organized crime outfits such as drug traffickers, arms dealers, warlords, etc. This bank was able to conduct such flagrant activity due to their numerous political connections, which they gained by offering sweetheart loans to government officials as soft bribes. In addition, BCCI essentially served as a slush fund for intelligence agencies to pay various criminal organizations for their covert operations.The film comes up short by only touching upon this issue, but Mazur's book goes into great detail about this vast corruption. He explains that numerous U.S. banking giants openly pursue this drug money and that the Federal Reserve turns a blind eye to this activity. He also exposed the numerous bureaucratic obstacles that impeded him from fully investigating his cast. The DEA blocked him from pursuing our allies in Panama and Customs barred him from digging further into the CIA's links to BCCI. Also, the investigation was cut short to land a splashy headline in the newspapers.Long story short, the U.S. government has numerous links with organized crime outfits and Mazur does a masterful job of explaining the reasons and circumstances behind this corruption.

This book was for my son to replace the one he lost from the library. Very cheap, arrived when expected.

The receiver of the book has met the author and was impressed with the subject so chose it as a present.

Page after page, Bob Mazur's book fills ones head with his exploits. The reader is quickly awed by the amounts of money, intrigue and dirt banks move about and launder. One is also quick to conclude that as long as there is a demand for the 'product', the war on drugs will never be won.This exposure to the whole money laundering industry is spell binding with the reader left doubting the entire banking system's honesty and integrity.Unlike others' comments about this book, I did not mind, at all, Bob's infrequent references to his family. Doing so only serves motivate the reader to ask 'How were his family really affected by his three year commitment'?Bravo Mr. Mazur for having undertaken the task and bravo again for relating the account of how it was done.Richard Begin

"The Infiltrator" (starring Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston) is an excellent edge-of-your-seat movie but this true-story, first-person account by the undercover agent who infiltrated the Medellin cartel is even better - a page-turner detailing not only the murderous intersection between drug-thugs and banks but also the frightening struggles for power within law enforcement.

Saw the movie first and then read the book. Excellent insight to the alleged war on drugs and the sad state of US law enforcement vs politics. Good luck.