Dirty Gold

An astonishing read -- full of corruption, greed, strong drink and stronger language -- that reveals the rotten heart of the global economy - Oliver Bullough, author of MoneylandCrackles along ... they deserve credit for exposing the dark underbelly of the jewellery industry and giving us another glimpse into the real cost of the global obsession with gold - Spectator All that glitters is not gold.Gold is the new cocaine - and it's just as lucrative, dangerous, and destructive. Dirty Gold is a searing expose on the booming gold mining industry and destruction on the land and people of Latin America. It looks closely at a small US firm in Miami that helped transform the city into the nation's No.1 importer of gold into the United States. The book follows the meteoric rise and fall of a group of drug traders known as 'the three amigos' who laundered narco money through gold illegally brought into the US and raked in millions before they were caught. Whilst they were making their millions, the humanitarian situation in Colombia, Peru, and many other countries deteriorated dramatically.

A fascinating deep dive into the most primal elements of human greed. Dirty Gold breaks new ground in more ways than one: as an expose on South America's illicit gold trade, as an international cops and robbers caper, and as a rip roaring tale of avarice that reads like an upscale version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Amazing. Do yourself a favor: get this book and read it. -- T.J. English, New York Times-bestselling author of The Corporation and Havana Nocturne, By tracking the complex web of money launderers, drug traffickers, and big money corporations who have exploited America's demand for gold, these journalists exposed how this brutal trade is poisoning workers, polluting rainforests, and creating a human trafficking pipeline. This is investigative journalism at its finest. -- Julie K. Brown, author of Perversion of Justice, The best account I've ever read on Latin America's massive illegal gold underworld. Fascinating, fast-paced, it documents the wild west of the gold industry, filled with memorable characters. It reminds us of the terrible toll this clandestine business takes on the environment, tearing up rain forests to satisfy the world's endless thirst for the precious metal. Dirty Gold reads like a thriller. -- Toby Muse, author of Kilo: Inside the Cocaine Cartels, For years, doomsday profiteers have pushed gold as a smart hedge against the coming apocalypse, but where is all that metal coming from? This deeply reported book connects Conquistadors to drug cartels to Miami real estate to the Peruvian Amazon-revealing a greed-fueled global gold trade so rotten, it makes Fred C. Dobbs look wholesome. -- Rachel Slade, author of Into the Raging Sea

Jay Weaver (Author) Jay Weaver has covered courts, government and politics for more than 25 years for the Herald. A graduate of UC Berkeley, he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2001. He and Nicholas Nehamas were also 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalists for a series on international gold smuggling.Nicholas Nehamas (Author) Nicholas Nehamas is an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald. He was part of a team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting on the Panama Papers.Jim Wyss (Author) Jim Wyss is a prize-winning journalist who has spent most of his career living and working in Latin America for outlets like the Economist, the San Francisco Chronicle and Latin Trade. Since 2011, he's been the Miami Herald's South America correspondent based in Bogota, Colombia. He has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University through the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship, and was also part of the reporting team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for their work on the Panama Papers.Kyra Gurney (Author) Kyra Gurney is a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she has worked since 2016 and where she helped report an award-winning Panama Papers story exposing ties between Argentine officials and a South Florida real estate empire. Before moving to Miami, Kyra was a reporter at InSight Crime, a non-profit investigative journalism outlet based in Colombia that focuses on organized crime and corruption in Latin America. Kyra has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.