DAILY BEAST "HOT READ" - 9/2/2011

The Takedown
by Jeffrey Robinson
The true story behind the effort to stop a drug cartel responsible for 60 percent of the cocaine coming into the United States.

‘The Takedown’ by Jeffrey Robinson. 336 p. Thomas Dunne Books. $28.99.

True-crime expert Jeffery Robinson’s fifth investigative exposé is the tale of an odd couple that paired up to take down Columbia’s notoriously powerful Norte Valle cartel. Working out of a cramped Long Island office 2,500 miles from their suspects, federal prosecutor Bonnie Klapper and Special Agent Romedio “Rooney” Viola spent 13 years tracking and eventually taking down the entirety of the brutal gang. Not so bad for a mom of two and West Virginia native, both initially deemed crazy by their superiors for taking on such a seemingly impossible task. Robinson recounts their audacious task effortlessly, making the thriller a gripping end-of-summer read.

Where Dictators Hide Their Money

THE TAKEDOWN by Jeffrey Robinson --- A Suburban Mom, A Coal Miner's Son, and the Unlikely Demise of Colombia's Brutal Norte Valle Cartel

THE TAKEDOWN by Jeffrey Robinson

"A real-life Law & Order... the narrative crackles with authenticity."
Kirkus Reviews

 


If ever there was an odd couple.

A suburban mom and a coal miner's son.

Bonnie Klapper is an attractive, funny, off-beat but tenacious federal prosecutor who constantly thinks out of the box, often to the chagrin of her superiors. She is a full-time Assistant US Attorney, and a full-time mom to two sons, one of whom is a special needs child.

Now retired Special Agent Romedio "Rooney" Viola --- first of US Customs then of the Department of Homeland Security --- is a slightly built, larger-than-life eccentric from West Virginia whose reputation was based on his obsessive-compulsive pursuit of fugitives.

They were brought together by happenstance while both were assigned to the "El Dorado Task Force," operating out of the World Trade Center. A raid on three wire remitters in Queens, New York uncovered huge amounts of drug money being sent to three tiny villages in Colombia that no one had ever heard of.

Neither the Justice Department nor the Treasury Department seemed terribly concerned with where the money was going, as long as this flow of drug cash was stopped.

But Bonnie and Rooney wanted to know more.

Working together out of her tiny office in the implausible outpost of Hauppauge, Long Island, they set off on a 13 year journey to dismantle --- systematically --- the Colombian cartel responsible for 60% of all the cocaine coming into the United States.

Her superiors at Justice and his superiors at what was then Immigration and Customs Enforcement were quick to write them both off as dreamers. Management believed there were enough drug dealers in the greater New York area to keep everyone busy for a long time. Taking down a barbarous gang of traffickers and murderers 2500 miles away, was pure fantasy.

But Bonnie wasn't so sure.

And Rooney didn't care what they thought.



Tom Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press
Coming August 2011.

You Are What You Throw Away - Jeffrey Robinson on Identity Theft

So, if you wouldn't give a stranger your mother's maiden name...

A Two-Way Street Crime

(c) Jeffrey Robinson, 2010


Fraud is a two-way street crime.That means, if a conman is going to steal your money, he needs you to help him get it.

Unlike theft by force or violence, fraud is theft by stealth and trust. It is a crime of persuasion. The scammers job, duping you into parting with your money, begins by somehow making you susceptible to being duped.

Playing on your emotions, he needs to make you believe a very basic lie—that he has the power to make you richer, sexier, happier and that all you have to do to become richer, sexier, happier is to let him into your life. That, by giving him your money, your wishes will come true.

While most of us would never open the door to a stranger who has come to steal our wallet, thousands of people willingly let fraudsters into their lives every day, only to find out the hard way the meaning of betrayal.

One of the most basic human emotions that conmen rely on—heavily!—is greed. Who wouldn't turn down a get-rich-quick scheme if he or she was 100% convinced that it is 1000% foolproof? So, the fraudster goes about convincing you that, beyond any shadow of doubt, you can't possibly lose.

Once he ignites your greed, he knows that carelessness will automatically follow, and that's the slippery-slope to stupidity. Successful fraudsters not only understand this, they play off it with devastating effect. After all, this is how they make their living.

Later, when a scam is dissected, almost all victims invariably ask, "How could I have fallen for that?"

That's never a simple question for a victim to answer, because the victim played a role in his or her own demise. Being hoodwinked by a criminal truly hurts. Yet, in the cold light of day, how it happened and why it happened becomes obvious—it happened because common sense took the day off.

And there-in lies the best protection anyone can have when it comes to preventing fraud—a healthy dose of common sense.

If the deal someone is offering you strikes you as too good to be true, if your gut feeling is driving you to ask, how come I got so lucky, then the best advice ever is, when in doubt, don't.

Don't let the fraudster in your front door.

Don't believe that you have been singled out from all the other people on the planet to win at whatever game your new friend is playing at.

In our complex, globalized, hi-tech world, fraudsters, scammers and conmen of all shapes and sizes are more skilled in their craft, more elusive through their use of technology and more erudite in their understanding of our desires than ever before. And, like animals in the jungle, there is a natural culling of the herd. Bad fraudsters get arrested. The good ones just get better.
It's common sense that levels the playing field.

That's why the old caveat is still the best: If it is too good to be true, it ain't true!

Nothing could be more common sense than that.