Pure Narco

One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels

Jesse Fink and Luis Navia - Foreword by DEA Special Agent (Retired) Eric Kolbinsky

For a quarter century, Luis Antonio Navia worked as a high-level cocaine transporter for all of the major Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, including Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel, and flooded the United States and Europe with cocaine before his dramatic arrest in Venezuela in 2000 during the 12-nation Operation Journey.

The story of Navia’s rise, fall, takedown, imprisonment, and redemption is expertly researched and told by acclaimed biographer Jesse Fink, who has gathered interviews with Navia, Navia’s family, and a dozen law-enforcement agents in the United States and Great Britain from agencies such as the DEA, ICE and Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise (now Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs). Told in vivid detail, this true crime story will captivate the reader from start to finish.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 592 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅜

978-1-5381-5551-6 • Hardback • November 2021 • $29.95 • (£25.00)

978-1-5381-5558-5 • eBook • November 2021 • $28.00 • (£19.99)

Subjects: True Crime / Organized Crime, Biography & Autobiography / Criminals & Outlaws, History / Latin America / Central America, Social Science / Criminology

Pure Narco

One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels

Hardback

eBook

Summary

For a quarter century, Luis Antonio Navia worked as a high-level cocaine transporter for all of the major Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, including Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel, and flooded the United States and Europe with cocaine before his dramatic arrest in Venezuela in 2000 during the 12-nation Operation Journey.
The story of Navia’s rise, fall, takedown, imprisonment, and redemption is expertly researched and told by acclaimed biographer Jesse Fink, who has gathered interviews with Navia, Navia’s family, and a dozen law-enforcement agents in the United States and Great Britain from agencies such as the DEA, ICE and Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise (now Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs). Told in vivid detail, this true crime story will captivate the reader from start to finish.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 592 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅜

978-1-5381-5551-6 • Hardback • November 2021 • $29.95 • (£25.00)

978-1-5381-5558-5 • eBook • November 2021 • $28.00 • (£19.99)

Subjects: True Crime / Organized Crime, Biography & Autobiography / Criminals & Outlaws, History / Latin America / Central America, Social Science / Criminology

Author

Jesse Fink worked for two decades as a journalist, editor and columnist but is best known as the author of two internationally bestselling biographies, Bon: The Last Highway and The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC. Fink’s books collectively have been translated into 13 languages and released in over 20 countries. He lives in Sydney, Australia.
Luis Navia worked for nearly 25 years as a cocaine trafficker for the deadliest Colombian and Mexican cartels until he was arrested in the multinational sting Operation Journey in 2000. He was released in 2005 and began a new career in construction. Today he also runs his own consulting business for private clients and liaises with the US Government in matters related to antinarcotics law enforcement. He lives in Miami, Florida.

Table of Contents

Maps
Foreword: The Trip by DEA Special Agent (Retired) Eric Kolbinsky
Introduction: Life on a Coin Toss by Jesse Fink
Prologue: Do the Right Thing
PART 1: TAKEDOWN
Chapter 1 El Senador
Chapter 2 The Venezuelan Job
Chapter 3 Midnight Run
Chapter 4 The Cab Ride
Chapter 5 Flight to Maracaibo
Chapter 6 Into the Black
Chapter 7 The Gringo
PART 2: ROCK ’N’ ROLL DRUMMER
Chapter 8 Silver Platter
Chapter 9 Tom Sawyer Land
Chapter 10 Grams in Georgetown
Chapter 11 The FM Scam
Chapter 12 Deathtrap
PART 3: BISCAYNE BANDIDO
Chapter 13 La Mona
Chapter 14 Sucking Tit for Milk
Chapter 15 Blue Boxes
Chapter 16 Stalin in the Flesh
Chapter 17 Disco Champagne
Chapter 18 Drive, He Said
Chapter 19 Ballad of a Well-Known Gun
PART 4: THE NETWORK
Chapter 20 Navia’s 11
Chapter 21 Dirty Work
Chapter 22 Dead-Shark Eyes
Chapter 23 Night Train
PART 5: WILD WEST
Chapter 24 Santa Marta Gold
Chapter 25 The Spaghetti Incident
Chapter 26 Kilo of Thorns
Chapter 27 River of Blood
Chapter 28 Sugar King of Palm Beach County
PART 6: WAR ZONE
Chapter 29 Five Units of Fercho
Chapter 30 Body in a Barrel
Chapter 31 Going Down
Chapter 32 The Night They Shot Galán
Chapter 33 Two Toucans
Chapter 34 Death at Dog Rocks
PART 7: SCARFACE
Chapter 35 Felony Favors
Chapter 36 The Wake
Chapter 37 Real Crazy Motherfuckers
Chapter 38 The Prisoner of Cartago
PART 8: BLAME IT ON CANCÚN
Chapter 39 Fire in the Lake
Chapter 40 Chasing a Ghost
Chapter 41 Dead in the Water
Chapter 42 The Board Meeting
Chapter 43 The Firm
PART 9: MAGOO IN MEXICO
Chapter 44 Dinner with Alberto
Chapter 45 Airdrops and Raindrops
Chapter 46 The Crocodile Thing
Chapter 47 Out of Breath
PART 10: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Chapter 48 I Don’t Like Cocaine (I Love It)
Chapter 49 The Separation
Chapter 50 The Postcard
Chapter 51 Burnt Out
Chapter 52 Under the Gun
Chapter 53 The Heat
PART 11: AN INFILTRATED SITUATION
Chapter 54 The Phone Call
Chapter 55 The Butterfly Effect
Chapter 56 The Snitch
Chapter 57 Shitting Match
Chapter 58 Atlantic Crossing
Chapter 59 Nick the Fish
Chapter 60 Clear and Present Danger
PART 12: SOWING THE SEEDS OF LOVE
Chapter 61 The Business Deal
Chapter 62 The Roadmap
Chapter 63 Closed Doors
Chapter 64 Rule 35
Chapter 65 The Typewriter Room
Chapter 66 God Exists
PART 13: FLICK OF THE SWITCH
Chapter 67 Everything Kills People
Chapter 68 Team America
Chapter 69 Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter 70 The Forbidden Apple
Chapter 71 There Is No War
Chapter 72 Crossing the Line
PART 14: THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
Chapter 73 Stockholm Syndrome
Chapter 74 Collateral Damage
Chapter 75 The Heaven Part of Hell
Chapter 76 Crooked Road
Chapter 77 On the Hook
Epilogue: The Icepick
Narco Nicknames
Characters
Acronyms
Gazetteer
Operation Journey: By the Numbers
Glossary
Criminal Organizations
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Endnotes
Index
About the Authors

Reviews

Fink tells the gripping story of Luis Navia, a prominent Cuban American drug trafficker in the 1980s and ’90s. Navia’s well-to-do parents fled Cuba when he was a small boy after Castro’s 1959 takeover and settled in Miami. In later years, he had no interest in his father’s sugar trading business and partied in college while selling cocaine. From there he became a narco for Colombian and Mexican cartels, transporting billions of dollars in coke around the world. Known as El Senador for his classy fashion sense, Navia attributes his 25-year successful run to being a businessman and not a killer. But it all came to an end in 2000 with Operation Journey, a multinational drug bust that was the largest in history. In 2001, Navia took a plea deal in the U.S. and testified against cartel members in exchange for a four-year prison sentence. Almost as fascinating as his drug years is Fink’s account of how Navia has since led a wealthy lifestyle in Miami with extended family and friends. Though Navia won’t say how much money he has, Fink estimates he has millions stashed in offshore accounts. Those interested in how the illegal drug trade and law enforcement interact will be rewarded.

— Publishers Weekly

Navia trafficked cocaine for decades, which ended in his takedown during the multinational Operation Journey in 2000; here, he and co-author Fink tell his story.

— Library Journal

In August 2000, a joint–law enforcement investigation between the U.S. and the British government resulted in the dismantling of a large drug-smuggling ring. Tons of drugs were seized, and arrests were made. Navia, a man who walked a tightrope of criminality and legitimacy, was nabbed after operating in the drug underworld for 25 years. Of Cuban heritage, Navia had worked for Colombia's Medellín and Cali cartels and gradually transferred his skills in working with various cartels in Mexico. He met and sometimes worked with the biggest names in the infamous underground empire: Pablo Escobar, Alberto Sicilia Falcon, the Ochoa Brothers. As recalled to coauthor Fink, Pure Narco amasses Navia's colorful recollections of past exploits in a candid yet guarded fashion. Navia disarms with his charisma and intelligence; his remorse is a little less apparent. He believes that the war on drugs is a hypocritical war with no end. Navia's insights make for a revelatory look inside the treacherous world of organized crime in this new true-crime classic.

— Booklist

Pure Narco is an unbelievable insider’s look at the life and times of a real narco. During his 25-year criminal career, Luis Navia learned to work with all of the major Colombian cocaine manufacturing and distribution organizations, something not easily done, and miraculously survived to tell his tale. Navia and Jesse Fink provide a detailed and uncensored look at the underbelly of the beast, the international cocaine trade, and give an account that even most experienced law-enforcement professionals never see.

— Steve Murphy, DEA Special Agent (retired) who hunted down Pablo Escobar

Intriguing and thought provoking. While there is no perfect formula when it comes to telling a life story...there can be an almost ideal result. A truly gripping and detailed account about a life lived on the edge. A must read.

— C. A. Heifner, author of “Mule: My Dangerous Life as a Drug Smuggler Turned DEA Informant”

The best insider account ever written of the global cocaine trade and the outrageous but precarious lives of those at the top.

— Peter Walsh, author, “Drug War: The Secret History”

I have never read anything like this. I’ve never read anything that drew me in like Pure Narco in this genre, certainly. It drew me in like a great novel.

— Jenny Queen, host, “So What Do You Do All Day?” podcast (Australia)

Fascinating story. Pure Narco is quite an amazing book. It’s rare that you get someone who was involved in the illegal narcotics trade to talk so openly about their life and lifestyle. Luis Navia has stories for the fireside more than most.

— Ross Kemp, host, “The Kempcast” podcast (UK)

Features

5/10/22, The Jordan Harbinger Show: Luis Navia talked about the book and his 25 years inside the cartels.
Link: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/luis-navia-25-years-inside-the-narco-cartels/

11/10/21, Talk is Jericho Podcast: Luis and Jesse recount tales from the book with host Chris Jericho.
Link: https://www.webisjericho.com/talk-is-jericho-pure-narco-inside-the-medellin-drug-cartel/

11/15/21, Game of Crimes Podcast: Part 1 of Luis Navia’s in-depth interview with Steve Murphy and Morgan Wright has been released.
Link: https://gameofcrimespodcast.com/part-1-luis-navia-is-pure-narco/

12/11/21, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory: Jesse Fink and Luis Navia talk about stories from the book in this show, joined by Ian Punnett and DEA agent Eric Kolbinsky, who originally arrested Navia in Venezuela.
Link:https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2021-12-11-show/

7/23/2024, Julian Dorey Podcast: Luis Navia shared his story:
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/video-the-cartels-highest-ranking-smuggler-tells-all/id1531416289?i=1000663107276