This is the true story of how El Chapo built the world's wealthiest and most powerful drug-trafficking operation, based on months' worth of trial testimony and dozens of one-on-one interviews with cartel gunmen, Mexican journalists and political figures, El Chapo's family members, and the DEA agents who brought him down. Over the course of three decades, El Chapo was responsible for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, meth, and fentanyl around the world, becoming the most celebrated and reviled drug lord since Pablo Escobar. El Chapo waged ruthless wars against his rivals and former allies, plunging vast areas of Mexico into unprecedented levels of violence, even as many in his home state of Sinaloa continued to view him as a hero. Journalist Noah Hurowitz digs beyond the legend and delves into El Chapo's life, uncovering the man behind the infamous prison escapes, brutal murders, and multimillion-dollar government payoffs and showing the paranoia and narcissism that led to his downfall. This gripping work of on-the-ground reporting traces the evolution of organized crime in Mexico and the devastation the war on drugs has wrought on both sides of the border.