Ron Chepesiuk » Books

Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of The Cali Cartel

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:52:59 +0000

For more than 20 years, the Cali cartel saturated U.S. streets with cocaine, ruining neighborhoods and lives while reaping millions in cash. Efforts to combat the influx of drugs from Colombia were often stymied by the careful organization and execution of the drug trade. Through the use of bribery, terrorist structures, and legitimate business practices, the cartel rose to become a serious threat to Colombian society’s fragile stability, while providing over 70% of the world’s cocaine to various markets. It took more than two decades and a global effort, spearheaded by U.S. law enforcement, to topple this notorious criminal organization.

The rise and fall of one of Colombia’s most notorious drug cartels is a story of how organized crime can function at the most sophisticated levels, yet still be taken down by the very forces it seeks to evade. This book vividly examines the Cali Cartel, providing unique insight into the history of international trafficking, organized crime, and U.S. drug policy. Relying on first hand accounts, interviews, and DEA records, The author brings the story to life, illustrating how drug traffickers operate and why they are so difficult to stop. In detailing law enforcement’s biggest takedown, this book describes how such transnational criminal organizations must be dismantled, and why drug trafficking continues to be an important problem in the United States. The fall of the cartel also provides lessons for law enforcement efforts to combat terrorists and other formidable criminal organizations.

Gangsters of Harlem

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:52:59 +0000

For the first time ever, author Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the little known history of organized crime in Harlem. African American organized crime has had as significant an impact on its constituent community as Italian, Jewish, and Irish organized crime has had on theirs. Gangsters are every bit as colorful, intriguing, and powerful as Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, and have a fascinating history in gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing. In this riveting, vivid documentation, Chepesiuk tells the little-known story of organized crime in Harlem through in-depth profiles of the major gangs and motley gangsters whose exploits have made them legends.

Black Gangsters of Chicago

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:52:59 +0000

Chicago has long been a haven for organized crime. Al Capone, Johnny Torrio, Sam Giancana—these names bring to mind the heyday of Chicago’s notorious Outfit. Yet, every bit as intriguing and powerful as these white gangsters were the Windy City’s African American mob bosses. In Black Gangsters of Chicago, author Ron Chepesiuk (Gangsters of Harlem) takes readers through the annals of black organized crime in Chicago, from the very first black gangsters to Willie Lloyd—the now wheelchair-bound and imprisoned headman of the Vice Lords.

As early as 1906, illegal gambling was being spearheaded by the “Negro Gambling King of Chicago,” Mushmouth Johnson. Johnson, who would become the iconic black gangster, ushered in a century long era of underground gambling halls, political bribery and election fraud that continues to this day.

In the 1960s, the city’s most famous gang—the Blackstone Rangers—rose to power. Composed of young teens from Blackstone Avenue and led by a charismatic young man named Jeff Fort, the gang was the first to extend their criminal enterprises into other cities.

The Vice Lords, another prominent Windy City gang, was ruled by convicted cop killer Willie Lloyd. Lloyd ran the gang while incarcerated, and in August 2003 was the target of an assassination attempt that left him paralyzed. Larry Hoover, one of Chicago most powerful gang leaders lead his Gangster Disciples from prison for nearly 25 years.

Chicago’s notoriety as the nation’s most theatrically corrupt city is well deserved, and few locales have been the setting of as many factual and fictional crime tales. In this fascinating narrative history Ron Chepesiuk profiles the key players in the nation’s largest black organized crime population and traces the murderous evolution of the gangs and rackets that define Chicago’s violent underworld.

Gangsters of Miami

admin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:52:59 +0000

This well researched book chronicles, through fascinating profiles, the rise of the gangster in Miami and the history of crime in one of America’s most exciting and edgy cities.

Rising from a swampy flatland a little more than a century ago, Miami has grown to become a trend setting metropolis known for tourism, fashion, nightlife and style. Miami is also the edgy city of Hollywood’s “Scarface” Tony Montana, television’s Miami Vice and popular culture’s “Cocaine Cowboy.” Gangsters of Miami digs beyond the headlines and fantasy to provide a close up look at the real role that mobsters, gamblers, hit men, con men and other gangsters have played in making American’s youngest city also one of its most fascinating.

Known as the Magic City, Miami has been the home for a colorful variety of gangsters from its early days to the modern period. They include the notorious smugglers of the Prohibition era, famous mobsters like Al Capone and Meyer Lansky who helped make Miami a gambling Mecca, the Cuban Mafia, La Compania (The Company), which arrived after Cuba fell to Castro, the Colombian cartels during the cocaine explosion, the Russian mafia after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the street gangs that plagued Miami after the advent of crack cocaine.

Gangsters of Miami investigates the police and governmental corruption that has plagued the Magic City since its early days
“Gangster of Miami” is a lively and well documented account of Miami’s gangs and gangsters. As he did with Gangsters of Harlem and Black Gangsters of Chicago, investigative journalist Ron Chepesiuk shows that fact can be more riveting than fiction.

The Trafficantes

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:52:59 +0000

Book Available for Purchase:

Note: Please allow 4 to 5 weeks for print book delivery. ebook will be sent immediately.

In this page-turning narrative, noted true crime writer Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the story of one of history’s lesser known but most important mob dynasties. For nearly seven decades, Santo Trafficante, Sr. and his son, Santo, Jr. were prominent gangsters on the Tampa crime scene. Santo Sr. arrived in Tampa in 1902 and settled in the Ybor City area where he slowly began his climb to the top of the Tampa mob scene. Along the way, he became a clever and ruthless gangster who preferred to operate in the shadows. By the mid 1920s, Santo, Sr. had become a powerful force in the Tampa mafia. Two decades later, the U.S. government reported that he was “strongly suspected of having financed important narcotics transactions.” During Tampa’s “Era of Blood” from 1930 through the 1950s, in which several local gangsters were murdered, Santo Sr. emerged as Tampa’s most powerful mobster. He would remain so until his death in 1954.

His successor, Santo Jr., lead the Tampa mob for more than three decades and became involved in some of history’s most seminal events. They include Mob dominance of the gambling scene in pre-Castro Cuba, the CIA plots to kill Castro, the spectacular mob hit of godfather Albert Anastasia in 1957, the famous Mob meeting at Apalachin in upstate New York that followed shortly after, the John F. Kennedy assassination, and the development of narcotics networks in Latin America and Southeast Asia, among others. Unlike most other godfathers, Santo Jr. never spent more than a night in an American jail. When he died in 1987, organized crime expert Ralph Salerno described Santo Jr.’s death as “the end of an era” and the godfather as “the last of the old time (gangland) leaders.” In vivid prose and concise detail, Chepesiuk weaves the fascinating story of the legendary gangsters, the Trafficantes.

“ Ron Chepesiuk’s book on the Trafficantes takes the reader behind the headlines to the real story, uncensored and without filters. The book is fast-paced with fascinating factual details told in Chepesiuk’s trademark tell-it-as-it-is writing style. A must read for true crime aficionados.”

“Elle Andra-Warner, author of several best-selling books, including Edmund Fitzgerald: The Legendary Great Lakes Shipwreck and The Mounties; Robert Service.

Sergeant Smack

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:52:59 +0000

Book Available for Purchase:

Note: Book will be sent on release dates. Go to Sergeant Smack Website for details.

Sergeant Smack chronicles the story of Leslie “Ike” Atkinson, one of U.S. history’s most original gangsters, Under the cover of the Vietnam War and through the use of the U.S. military infrastructure, Atkinson masterminded an enterprising group of family members and former African American GIs that the DEA identified as one of history’s ten top drug trafficking rings. According to law enforcement sources, 1,000 pounds is a conservative estimate for the heroin amount the ring transported annually from Bangkok, Thailand, to U.S. military bases during its period of operation from 1968 to 1975. That amount translates to about $400 million worth of illegal drug sales during that period.

Ike Atkinson is a charismatic former U.S. army master sergeant, career smuggler, card shark and doting family man whom law enforcement code-named Sergeant Smack. He was never known to carry a gun, and, today, many retired law enforcement officials who put him in jail, refer to him as a “gentleman.” Sergeant Smack’s criminal activities sparked the creation of a special DEA unit code named Centac 9, which conducted an intensive three-year investigation across three continents. Sergeant Smack was elusive, but the discovery of his palm print on a kilo of heroin finally took him down.

In 1987, Ike tried to revive his drug ring from Otisville Federal Penitentiary, but the Feds discovered the plot and set up a sting. The events that follow seem like the narrative for a Robert Ludlum novel. Atkinson is convicted and nine years are added to his sentence. Ike was released from prison in 2006 after serving 31-year jail sentence. Atkinson’s story is controversial because his ring has been accused of smuggling heroin to the U.S. in the coffins and cadavers of dead American GIs. As this book show, the accusation is completely false.

The recent movie, “American Gangster,” which purportedly depicted the criminal career of Frank Lucas, distorted Atkinson’s historical role in the international drug trade. Sergeant Smack exposes the lies about the Ike Atkinson-Frank Lucas relationship and documents how Ike, not Lucas, pioneered the Asian heroin connection.