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The Mastermind
- Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.
- Narrated by: Evan Ratliff
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux - the creator of a frighteningly powerful internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
"A tour de force of shoe-leather reporting - undertaken, amid threats and menacing, at considerable personal risk." (Los Angeles Times)
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Evening Standard • Kirkus Reviews
It all started as an online prescription drug network, supplying hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of painkillers to American customers. It would not stop there. Before long, the business had turned into a sprawling multinational conglomerate engaged in almost every conceivable aspect of criminal mayhem. Yachts carrying $100 million in cocaine. Safe houses in Hong Kong filled with gold bars. Shipments of methamphetamine from North Korea. Weapons deals with Iran. Mercenary armies in Somalia. Teams of hit men in the Philippines. Encryption programs so advanced that the government could not break them. The man behind it all, pulling the strings from a laptop in Manila, was Paul Calder Le Roux - a reclusive programmer turned criminal genius who could only exist in the networked world of the 21st century, and the kind of self-made crime boss that American law enforcement had never imagined. For half a decade, DEA agents played a global game of cat-and-mouse with Le Roux as he left terror and chaos in his wake. Each time they came close, he would slip away. It would take relentless investigative work, and a shocking betrayal from within his organization, to catch him. And when he was finally caught, the story turned again, as Le Roux struck a deal to bring down his own organization and the people he had once employed.
Award-winning investigative journalist Evan Ratliff spent four years piecing together this intricate puzzle, chasing Le Roux's empire and his shadowy henchmen around the world, conducting hundreds of interviews and uncovering thousands of documents. The result is a riveting, unprecedented account of a crime boss built by and for the digital age.
Praise for The Mastermind
"The Mastermind is true crime at its most stark and vivid depiction. Evan Ratliff's work is well done from beginning to end, paralleling his investigative work with the work of the many federal agents developing the case against LeRoux." (San Francisco Book Review, five stars)
"A wholly engrossing story that joins the worlds of El Chapo and Edward Snowden; both disturbing and memorable." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
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Critic reviews
“The Mastermind is a tour de force of shoe-leather reporting - undertaken, amid threats and menacing, at considerable personal risk. Ratliff’s reportage unfolds in crisp, atmospheric prose, and he brings a dispassionate eye to a milieu lousy with unreliable narrators, triangulating where possible to separate fact from legend.” (Los Angeles Times)
“If truth is stranger than fiction, then The Mastermind is the truest book you’ll read this year. The only thing predictable about it is how quickly you’ll turn the pages.” (Noah Hawley, author of Before the Fall and creator of the TV series Fargo)
“As directors, we spend countless hours imagining heightened plots and memorable characters that will leave a lasting impression on audiences. The true tale of obsession, genius, intrigue, and vengeance detailed in The Mastermind is as gripping and cinematic as anything we could endeavor to conjure up.” (Joe and Anthony Russo, directors, Captain America and Avengers: Infinity War)
“This is a mesmerizing, absolutely bonkers story about a man as brilliant as he is villainous. You’ll find yourself sucked in, freaked out, and ultimately blown away by Ratliff's storytelling and tireless reporting. The Mastermind is a masterpiece.” (Nick Thompson, editor-in-chief, Wired)
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- Unabridged
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The Tangled Web tells the dramatic story of detective Richard Cain's criminal career as revealed by his half-brother, Michael. Cain led a double-life—one as a well-known cop who led raids that landed on the front pages, and the other as a "made man" in one of Chicago's most notorious mob families.
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Reviews
- By G. D. Hoppe on 11-19-20
By: Michael Cain
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The Secrets of the FBI
- By: Ronald Kessler
- Narrated by: Michael Bybee
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The Secrets of the FBI by New York Times best-selling author Ronald Kessler reveals the FBIs most closely guarded secrets and the secrets of celebrities, politicians, and movie stars uncovered by agents during their investigations.
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Even-handed; an interesting history of the FBI
- By G-Man on 08-08-11
By: Ronald Kessler
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Freezing Order
- A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail in 2009, Browder cast aside his business career and made it his life’s mission to pursue justice for Sergei. One of the first steps of that mission was to uncover who had killed Sergei and profited from the $230 million corruption scheme that he had exposed. As Browder and his team tracked the money that flowed out of Russia—through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas—they discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was one of the beneficiaries of the crime.
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Red Notice Part II —- The Empire Struck Out
- By R. Alembik on 04-16-22
By: Bill Browder
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The Snakehead
- An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
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A mesmerizing narrative about the rise and fall of an unlikely international crime boss. Based on hundreds of interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe's sweeping narrative tells the story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize their own version of the American dream.
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But Is It a Crime?
- By Roy on 08-23-09
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Oklahoma City
- What the Investigation Missed - and Why It Still Matters
- By: Andrew Gumbel, Roger G. Charles
- Narrated by: Todd Waring
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In Oklahoma City, veteran investigative journalists Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. Charles puncture the myth about what happened on that day - one that has persisted in the minds of the American public for nearly two decades. Working with unprecedented access to government documents, a voluminous correspondence with Terry Nichols, and more than 150 interviews with those immediately involved, Gumbel and Charles demonstrate how much was missed in the official investigation.
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A Catalog
- By Lynn on 07-31-12
By: Andrew Gumbel, and others
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BMF
- The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family
- By: Mara Shalhoup
- Narrated by: L. Steven Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T", rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city.
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Good listen
- By Lamont on 04-20-20
By: Mara Shalhoup
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Kingpin
- How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground
- By: Kevin Poulsen
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The word spread through the hacking underground like some unstoppable new virus: Someone - some brilliant, audacious crook - had just staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network that siphoned billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimed at tracking down this new kingpin. Other agencies around the world deployed dozens of moles and double agents.
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This should be a movie
- By Hijenks on 05-19-15
By: Kevin Poulsen
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Best of Enemies
- The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War
- By: Gus Russo, Eric Dezenhall
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1978, CIA maverick Jack Platt and KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko were new arrivals on the Washington, D.C., intelligence scene, with Jack working out of the CIA's counterintelligence office and Gennady out of the Soviet Embassy. Both men were assigned to seduce the other into betraying his country in the final days of the Cold War, but instead the men ended up becoming the best of friends. Theirs is a friendship that never should have happened, and their story is chock full of treachery, darkly comic misunderstandings, bureaucratic inanity, and landmark intelligence breakthroughs.
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Really?
- By M.E. on 01-13-19
By: Gus Russo, and others
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The Quiet Don
- The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino
- By: Matt Birkbeck
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Secretive - even reclusive - Russell Bufalino quietly built his organized crime empire in the decades between Prohibition and the Carter presidency. His reach extended far beyond the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and quaint Amish farms near Lancaster. Bufalino had a hand in global, national, and local politics of the largest American cities, many of its major industries, and controlled the powerful Teamsters Union. His influence also reached the highest levels of Pennsylvania government and halls of Congress, and his legacy left a culture of corruption that continues to this day.
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Important But Edited By Lawyers?
- By Ted on 04-03-14
By: Matt Birkbeck
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Killing the Dream
- James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the three decades since April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot to death in Memphis, scores of books and articles have questioned whether James Earl Ray, King's killer, acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy. Now, based on explosive new interviews, confidential files, and previously undisclosed evidence, best-selling author Gerald Posner finally resolves the simple truth of the last great political murder mystery of the 1960s, definitively proving that Ray acted alone.
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Enlightening
- By Thornton Mellon on 05-19-19
By: Gerald Posner
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The Wonga Coup
- Guns, Thugs, and the Steely Determination to Create Mayhem
- By: Adam Roberts
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African, and Zimbabwean mercenaries, traveling on an American-registered ex-National Guard plane specially adapted for military purposes that was originally flown to Africa by American pilots?
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Dictators and dogs of war, beware
- By PearlGirl on 11-05-06
By: Adam Roberts
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Enemies Within
- Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden's Final Plot Against America
- By: Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Enemies Within Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman lay bare the complex and often contradictory state of counterterrorism and intelligence in America through the pursuit of Najibullah Zazi, a terrorist bomber who trained under one of bin Laden's most trusted deputies. Zazi and his coconspirators represented America's greatest fear: a terrorist cell operating inside America. Apuzzo and Goldman lift the veil of secrecy to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of our counterterrorism measures.
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Very in depth. I highly detailed account.
- By Patrick on 10-08-20
By: Matt Apuzzo, and others
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Jackpot
- High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs
- By: Jason Ryan
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Author Jason Ryan takes us back to the heady days before drug smuggling was synonymous with deadly gunplay. During this golden age of marijuana trafficking, the country's most prominent kingpins were a group of wayward and fun-loving Southern gentlemen who forsook college educations to sail drug-laden luxury sailboats across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. Les Riley, Barry Foy, and their comrades eschewed violence as much as they loved pleasure, and it was greed, lust, and disaster at sea that ultimately caught up with them, along with the law.
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If You Enjoy Injustice
- By Laura on 01-14-21
By: Jason Ryan
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Roger Reaves grew up a poor farm boy in Georgia and went from making 'moonshine' to becoming one of the most prolific smugglers of the 20th century. He covered six continents, transporting 20 ton ship loads of hash, tons of cocaine, and completed more than 100 sorties across the US border with plane loads of marijuana. His friends and associates spanned the globe - from Medellin Cartel kingpins Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar, to "Mr. Nice" Howard Marks and the infamous Barry Seal who was Roger's close friend and employee.
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Technological advances have benefited our world in immeasurable ways, but there is an ominous flip side: our technology can be turned against us. Hackers can activate baby monitors to spy on families, thieves are analyzing social media posts to plot home invasions, and stalkers are exploiting the GPS on smart phones to track their victims’ every move. We all know today’s criminals can steal identities, drain online bank accounts, and wipe out computer servers, but that’s just the beginning.
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At first glance Gabriel Cardona is the poster-boy American teenager: great athlete, bright, handsome, and charismatic. But the streets of his border town of Laredo, Texas, are poor and dangerous, and it isn't long before Gabriel abandons his promising future for the allure of the Zetas, a drug cartel with roots in the Mexican military. His younger friend, Bart, as well as others from Gabriel's childhood join him in working for the Zetas, boosting cars and smuggling drugs, eventually catching the eye of the cartel's leadership.
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Great book
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What listeners say about The Mastermind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Shaw
- 02-23-19
Fascinating!
Had it not been mentioned early on that this actually happened, I would have thought it was the basis for a Hollywood blockbuster. Well done Evan!
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- Anonymous User
- 06-17-20
Gripping...a must-listen if you like 'Org-crime'
Evan Ratliff did a fantastic job both in narration and in the reporting that led to this book. The story is captivating and really hard to stop listening to. It has all of the gripping, page turning, 'what happens next' elements. The cast of characters is wild...and getting this close to them without having to endanger oneself is awesome.
I think the book is a must read for anyone who likes true crime, international conspiracy, organized crime, cyber crime and the like. It's just a fantastic book. Well done Evan.
If I were to mention a single foible, it would be the speed at which Evan narrates. Too fast for me...but thankfully there are a bunch of controls in an audio book to make it perfect. (.9 was my huckleberry)
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- Carolyn Foster
- 07-08-19
Movie?
So when is the movie coming out? This story deserves one. It's a great story. WOW!
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- M.R.
- 07-04-19
Spellbinding
Amazing true crime story written by an excellent writer with a impressive command of his craft.
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- Bradleyb9
- 07-21-20
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
Wild story about a character with whom I was not familiar. Narration is matter of fact without any inflection. Fine for me. Held my attention through. Meticulously researched and reported. Phenomenal job by Evan Ratliff.
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Brilliant. Evan Ratliff has no peers.
Not for people with a limited attention span. This guy had to cover so many people across so many nations under so many different conditions over so many years you have to have mathematical abilities to keep up with his meticulous mathematics. That he was even able to document this crime spree and deliver it qualifies him as a peer to Noah Webster writing a dictionary. Brilliant. You could never know this story without these amazing abilities of communication combined with mathematics. He can think with every red flag, moral, legal, economic, cultural, and policial. And lay it all out for you to understand. I mean, wow is this guy qualified to raise awareness! Internet crime is a whole new venue. : Evan Ratliff is one of the first "true crime" writers to get it. Brace yourself. His panoramic views may stretch your thinking abilities. He really takes your heart into humanity with all of it if you just surrender in trust, you will understand this labor of love in teaching you about real and current social dichotomies. You will never forget this story. Listen.Evan Ratliff went the distance to get to what is real.
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- CCinBK
- 03-04-19
Phenomenal
This story is wild and the author did an insane amount of research to tell it right. This is so much more than the telling of a criminal kingpin that you most likely never heard of. It explains why you never heard about it, detailing the bizarre approach that the southern district of NY and federal government took, and the reasoning behind not wanting it to get out. Fascinating listen, highly recommend.
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- S K
- 02-10-21
one of the bedr
as good as it gets. mesmerizing. great plot and. performance . don't start if you need to get anything else done
GREAT
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- Nayan
- 04-14-19
fantastic audio book
This is an incredible story about a monster who took everyone for a ride and the crazy shit he did.
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- Happy Customer
- 10-21-20
Hunting Leroux was a better book
I felt that Hunting Leroux was a better story on Paul Leroux. I found The Mastermind to be a little more general in the content than Hunting Leroux. It was still enjoyable to listen to but if you can, listen to both!
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1 person found this helpful