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Inside the Cartel: How an Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash, and Dismantled a Colombian Narco-Empire Audiobook, by Ian Frisch Play Audiobook Sample

Inside the Cartel: How an Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash, and Dismantled a Colombian Narco-Empire Audiobook

Inside the Cartel: How an Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash, and Dismantled a Colombian Narco-Empire Audiobook, by Ian Frisch Play Audiobook Sample
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Read By: Christian Barillas Publisher: HarperAudio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 7.17 hours at 1.5x Speed 5.38 hours at 2.0x Speed Release Date: September 2025 Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9780063354043

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

26

Longest Chapter Length:

53:15 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

10 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

24:59 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

2

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Publisher Description

“Truth is always stranger than fiction. . . A stunning, riveting and extraordinary real-life story of life in the shadows."" –#1 International Bestselling Author Don Winslow

The gripping true story, that reads like fiction, of how legendary FBI Special Agent Martin Suarez went deep undercover—and lived a double-life for years—to infiltrate Colombia's most insidious drug cartels.

Martin Suarez, a legend within the FBI who specialized in Colombian drug cartels, holds the record for the longest time spent continuously undercover. As his alter ego Manny, Martin followed the unspoken rules of the cartels: He knew the right lingo to use, the right whiskey to drink, the right watch to wear, the wrong questions to ask. He smuggled over $1 billion worth of cocaine into the United States for the Medellín Cartel and, as his cover deepened, he graduated to become a high-level money launderer for the North Coast Cartel. He helped wash tens of millions of dollars worth of drug money, ensnaring himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse while simultaneously exposing the Black Market Peso Exchange, the most insidious money laundering apparatus in the world that involved billionaire bankers, blue-chip American corporations, and even the President of Colombia himself.

Martin was raised by a father who served in the military and valorized the nobility of the FBI, and Martin stopped at nothing to allow his father to live vicariously through his son. He wanted nothing more than to make his father proud—and to be a good husband to his wife, and a loving father to his two young sons. He became a man caught between two worlds—that of an undercover agent who wanted to rid the world of its evils, but also that of a family man who was trying not to lose himself in this dark, brutal underworld that captivated the globe during the War on Drugs.

And yet his worlds begin to collide as danger creeps dangerously close to his doorstep when his cover is blown and a cartel-hired sicario comes hunting for him.

Inside the Cartel is told with the pulse-racing action of a Hollywood blockbuster. This is the story of Suarez and his time undercover and how maintaining the trust of hardened criminals can start to tear away at even the most principled soldier.

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About the Authors

Martin Suarez served over twenty years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, many of those years spent undercover targeting the world’s most powerful drug cartels. He eventually became the national coordinator for undercover operations before retiring in 2011. He now acts as a special consultant.  Ian Frisch is a journalist, author, and television producer. He is the author of Magic Is Dead. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, New York Magazine, Playboy, Wired, and more. He was a finalist for the 2016 Associated Press Sports Editors Explanatory Award.

About Christian Barillas

Christian Barillas is an Earphones Award–winning audio narrator and actor based in Los Angeles with credits in theater, film, and television. His professional career began with Center Theater Group’s A Very Old Man with Enourmous Wings, a short story by Gabriel García Márquez. He then appeared in several productions in and around Los Angeles including As You Like It, Sonia Flew, and A Christmas Carol. On television, he is perhaps most recognizable as Ronaldo on Modern Family, where he appears opposite Tony winner and Emmy nominee Nathan Lane.