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”