Summary of Roberto Saviano's Zero Zero Zero

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The people who use cocaine are right next to you. The police officer who is about to pull you over has been snorting for years, and everyone knows it.
#2 I was asked to write about a speech that had been recorded on an iPhone at a meeting. The police wanted to know if the story went the way the young man said it had, or if it had been staged.
#3 The police officer told me that the young man, his informant, had heard the only valuable lesson - how to be in the world - and had recorded it on the sly. If I wrote about it and nobody did anything, it would prove that the young man was telling the truth.
#4 The police officer read me the transcript he’d made. They’d met in a room not far from where we were, randomly seated, not in a horseshoe like they do at ritual initiations. The old Italian began speaking without even introducing himself.

Sujets

• True Crime
• Organized Crime

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 17 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822514133
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Roberto Saviano's Zero Zero Zero
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The people who use cocaine are right next to you. The police officer who is about to pull you over has been snorting for years, and everyone knows it.

#2

I was asked to write about a speech that had been recorded on an iPhone at a meeting. The police wanted to know if the story went the way the young man said it had, or if it had been staged.

#3

The police officer told me that the young man, his informant, had heard the only valuable lesson - how to be in the world - and had recorded it on the sly. If I wrote about it and nobody did anything, it would prove that the young man was telling the truth.

#4

The police officer read me the transcript he’d made. They’d met in a room not far from where we were, randomly seated, not in a horseshoe like they do at ritual initiations. The old Italian began speaking without even introducing himself.

#5

The rules of the organization are the rules of life. Government laws are the rules of one side that wants to fuck the other side. You must live for yourself, and show respect for others.

#6

The Honored Society understands that people don’t change, which is why rules are so important. They understand that everything dies, passes away, and nothing lasts forever. They know that journalists start out wanting to change the world and end up wanting to be editor in chief.

#7

The rules of the Honored Society are meant to control everyone. The society knows you can have money, power, and pussy, but it also knows that the person who is capable of giving up everything is the one who decides everyone else’s fate.

#8

The police officer told me that the young man had asked him, So am I betraying the organization now, letting you listen to this. The officer insisted that I write about it.

#9

I couldn't sleep. I was contacted to write the story of a story of a story, which turned out to be the training lesson about how to be in the world that the Italian bosses gave their Mexican and Latin American recruits.

#10

The story of the gomeros is one that will always stay with me. It was there that I learned the meaning of courage, and the meaning of cowardice. The fields were burned, but not suddenly. It was a slow burn, row by row, fire contaminating fire.

#11

The old man told Don Arturo that animals have courage and know what it means to defend life. Men brag about courage, but all they know how to do is obey, crawl, and get by.

#12

The United States needed morphine for war, so it asked Mexico to increase its opium production. The Mexican government agreed in exchange for a hefty cut of the opium. Arturo agreed to smuggle a portion of the opium out of Mexico for the Americans.

#13

The story of Kiki is a prime example of how not to become a narc. After the Kiki ordeal, Arturo decided to go back to growing grain. He abandoned opium and the men who dealt in heroin and morphine.

#14

The story of Kiki is linked to that of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, known as El Padrino, the Godfather. Félix Gallardo worked for the Federal Judicial Police of Mexico, and then worked as a bodyguard for the family of Governor Leopoldo Sánchez Celis, from which perch he began amassing his understanding and power.

#15

The Colombians would pay cash for each shipment, but El Padrino realized that currency could depreciate and that cocaine was more profitable: It would be a real coup to distribute it directly in the North American market. So he demanded to be paid in goods.

#16

On November 6, 1984, 450 Mexican soldiers invaded El Búfalo, a marijuana plantation controlled by Rafael Caro Quintero’s clan. The two share a deep trust, and they cofounded the organization that holds the monopoly on drug trafficking in Mexico. They ask everyone who works for them to investigate everyone else in their pay.

#17

One day, Kiki was on his way to see his wife, Mika. He put his badge and pistol in a drawer, left his room, and stepped outside. He was taken to Lope de Vega Street, where he was held captive by one of El Padrino's men.

#18

The story of Kiki Camarena is a prime example of how not to conduct an undercover operation. He was trying to infiltrate the Golden Triangle, a vast marijuana and opium production area in Mexico. His mother didn’t want him to take on the world’s drug kingpins by himself, but he insisted. They betrayed him and recorded his torture on tape.

#19

When pain becomes unbearable, you say what your torturers want to hear. But the most devastating thing that can happen when the pain becomes unbearable is the complete loss of psychological orientation. You become completely dependent on them, and you trust their logic and their nonexistent pity.

#20

Kiki Camarena’s story is central to understanding where our modern world begins. It’s the origin of the economy that regulates our lives today.

#21

In 1989, El Padrino organized a meeting in Acapulco with all the most powerful Mexican drug lords. He decided to subdivide his territory and assign various segments to traffickers the DEA hadn’t fixed their eyes on yet.

#22

The drug cartels were born that day, and today, more than twenty years later, they still exist. A new breed of criminal organization, with the means and the power to decide prices and distributions.

#23

After Kiki’s death, the American police had been chipping away at all of Félix Gallardo’s protections. They arrested El Padrino on April 8, 1989. The Americans wanted to see him behind bars again, American bars this time.

#24

The murder of Kiki Camarena and all that ensued revealed the level of impunity that the Mexican drug cartels had enjoyed. The producers were weakening compared to the distributors, and the bosses needed to be hit hard.

#25

The economic crisis may be destroying democracies, but it is strengthening criminal economies. If you look through the wound of criminal capital, all the vectors and movements appear different.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

On cocaine, you can do anything. Before your heart and brain explode, you’ll work more, sleep less, and network more. You’ll live more. But your body doesn’t run on more. At a certain point, the excitement has to die down, and your body has to return to a state of calm.

#2

Mexico is the origin of everything. If you disregard Mexico, you’ll never understand the destiny of democracies transformed by drug traffic. If you disregard Mexico, you’ll never find the route that follows the smell of money.

#3

The Sinaloa cartel is hegemonic in Mexico. It manages a significant slice of U. S. cocaine traffic and distribution. Sinaloa narcos are present in more than eighty American cities, with cells primarily in Arizona, California, Texas, Chicago, and New York.

#4

El Chapo was the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and he was responsible for transporting drugs into the United States. He was known as a trusted leader, and in a few years’ time, he was one of the men closest to El Padrino.

#5

After the arrest of El Padrino, El Chapo Guzmán decided to escape prison. He was methodical, and didn’t flaunt his power. He moved from Sinaloa to Guadalajara, the last place El Padrino lived before his arrest, while he based his organization in Agua Prieta, a town in the state of Sonora, convenient because it borders the United States.

#6

El Chapo became a legend after his escape from prison. He allied himself with the Beltrán Leyva family, a criminal gang led by four brothers skilled at intimidation and kickbacks, and especially good at infiltrating the political and judicial systems and the Mexican police force.

#7

The coin of power has a shiny, bright side and a worn, opaque one. Bloodthirstiness strikes fear in your rivals, but not respect, that luminescent patina that allows you to open every door without having to break it down.

#8

Amado was a shrewd businessman who had inherited the cartel that Rafael Aguilar Guajardo had founded in the 1970s. He was just the man to keep it running smoothly. He made shrewd investments, including an entire fleet of Boeing 727s, which he used to transport cocaine from Colombia to Mexico.

#9

The Juárez cartel continued to wage war against the Sinaloa cartel, and in 2010, the Associated Press announced that the Sinaloa cartel had finally won the battle. But the media epitaph did not prevent the Juárez cartel from continuing to wage war.

#10