In the predawn hours of January 8, 2016, Mexican Marines raided a home in the coastal town of Los Mochis, located in northwestern Mexico. There ended the manhunt for Joaquín Guzman Loera, better known as the infamous El Chapo.
In DRUG WARRIOR: Inside the Hunt for El Chapo and the Rise of America’s Opioid Crisis (Hachette Books; February 19, 2019), Special Agent in Charge, Jack Riley, the man tasked with hunting down El Chapo for the DEA, takes readers deep inside the operations to capture the most dangerous drug lord in history. A powerful first-person narrative, Drug Warrior chronicles Riley’s nearly 30-year hunt for the most notorious drug kingpin in the world. It is also a revelatory tale that illuminates the larger issues of illegal drug trafficking in America, how the state of US/Mexican relations is affecting drug control efforts, and how America’s strategy to combat international drug trafficking ultimately helped fuel the opioid epidemic.
Drug Warrior gives readers an exciting, behind-the-scenes look at Riley’s groundbreaking work in the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Mexican drug lords who control the flow of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin into the United States.
Retired DEA Special Agent Jack Riley was instrumental in leading the fight against cartel gangs, and saw first-hand the devastating impact drugs had in neighborhoods across the United States and beyond. Even as El Chapo, the man who put a bounty on Riley’s head, awaits trial in a federal maximum security prison, the residual impact of his influence rages on in the opioid epidemic that is ravaging the U.S. Drug Warrior serves as a warning that Americans cannot become complacent just because El Chapo is behind bars. The problem is much larger than El Chapo himself, and Jack’s story shines an important light on the elements that keep opioid trafficking, abuse, and fatalities in the news day after day. The DEA and other federal, state, and local agencies must keep working together to stop drug trafficking. The country’s future, he says, depends on it.
“Drug Warrior isn’t about one agent or one drug lord,” says Riley, “It’s written to honor the countless men and women of law enforcement who have dedicated, and in way too many instances, have given their lives fighting America’s ongoing war on drugs.” Riley’s close personal history with the world’s most wanted drug lord is so intimate it reads like fiction. Jack Riley is the veritable expert on both El Chapo and the opioid crisis in America—no one else knows more about how America can fight the rising tide of killer drugs in this country.
Jack Riley served as Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA’s El Paso Field Division and Division, combating Mexican drug trafficking organizations and drug-related gang violence plaguing Chicago. Jack served as the DEA’s Chief of Operations beginning in September 2014, commanding the organizations global drug enforcement efforts in 227 domestic and 86 foreign offices. He was appointed the DEA’s Acting Deputy Administrator (COO) in April 2015, overseeing all intelligence and regulatory activities worldwide. He retired as the highest ranking Special Agent at the DEA. was then selected by the Deputy Attorney General to serve as the first Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. From 2010-2014 he served as SAC of the Chicago Field