Award-winning investigative journalist Evan Ratliff chronicles the rise and fall of Paul Calder Le Roux, a brilliant programmer turned criminal genius who built a global crime syndicate operating out of Manila. What began as an online prescription drug network supplying painkillers to American customers evolved into a sprawling multinational conglomerate engaged in cocaine trafficking, methamphetamine shipments, arms deals, and contract killings. For years, DEA agents pursued Le Roux across the globe as he eluded capture through advanced encryption and ruthless tactics. The story takes an unexpected turn when Le Roux is finally captured and strikes a deal to become a government informant, cooperating to bring down his own organization and associates. Ratliff's meticulous four-year investigation, conducted amid personal threats and dangers, pieces together hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents to reveal a crime boss uniquely suited to—and enabled by—the digital age.
I’m normally not into true crime, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for investigative journalism. During the course of this book, I found myself disgusted with the so-called “good guys”, kind of rooting for them in spite of that, and then just appreciating the work and research that Evan did in order to create a pretty comprehensive story of a very convoluted series of events.
With him starting off with an online pill-mill, I still find myself wishing the DEA took just 1% of the effort they spent on screwing over (or trying to) an octogenerian pharmacist and a young doctor who saw the potential of tele-medecine, and focused it on the Sackler family, a significantly more deadly criminal empire, but that’s just not the world we live in.
It was a heck of a journey for sure, and does do a pretty good job of showing that so many of these rich people are really just gigantic losers, building empires and capital just to try (and fail) to buy the respect of their fellow humans, when it could be done for free by simply not being horrible people.
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