Nicholas Hronik

Wolf Boys by Dan Slater is a book about Mexican drug cartels, law enforcement, and a

brief history of events leading up to the current state of the drug war being waged in Mexico.

The book is primarily about a police officer named Robert Garcia, and a young cartel member

named Gabriel Cardona. It sheds light on their early lives and describes in detail the inner

workings from both the zeta cartel’s infrastructure and the law enforcement’s tactics on drug

enforcement. Two full chapters in the book are dedicated to the history and financial situation

that likely brought about a lot of the issues surrounding the current drug problem there.

The book starts out telling the early stories of how Robert Garcia became a hard murder

detective and Gabriel Cardona became a hardened cartel boss. Robert chose to join the

military, get married, become a cop, pursue a short career in the DEA, and then finally become

a murder detective in Laredo Texas. Gabriel Cardona decided to start taking roaches, join the

zeta cartel, and become an assassin smuggler boss. Each man was dedicated to what they

believed to be the answer to their life’s financial needs. The story really showed how even

being in an area where there is a lot of trouble can affect the development of a young person’s

mind. It showed how parenting and influences triggered ideals in the growing detective and

thug.

Robert and his father were immigrants, and he originally wanted to become a U.S.

citizen. He joined the military with this intention in mind, but then came back early and got into

a police officer position before a lot of the major trouble began. Laredo was just a small town

then, but the drugs were already coming into America and were surely making their way to

Laredo. Gabriel was younger, and Laredo had started to develop more of a haven for drug use

and cartel dealings. He had a drunk for a father and a mother struggling with several children.
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He chose to associate himself with drug users while glorifying Tupac’s thug lifestyle. Worst of

all, he chose to glorify his own thug lifestyle and bring others in behind him. His intentions were

to become a boss in the cartel business, but his rule as a cartel boss was short lived. Gabriel was

only in the business for several years and now serving life in prison.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is how it described the inner workings of

the zeta cartel, and how law enforcement learned about them. The cartel primarily targets

younger people interested in getting easy money and risking their lives for money or drugs to

recruit them as assassins. It is interesting how they trained them like soldiers and had such easy

access to desirable resources in Mexico such as: corrupted police support, safe houses, cars,

hospitals, engineers, and mortuaries. It is amazing how having money and guns gives the higher

ups in the cartel so much power and influence. The police on the other hand could only work

with the little information that cases would bring from investigating and any information the

gangsters would give them when they got arrested. One would think it would not be easy to get

a good informant when their life is on the line. It is incredible how they managed to bug a

safehouse to make the big arrests that they did.

There are two chapters dedicated to the history of Mexico, the financial situation there,

and the influence of drug legislation in America. The ancient Aztec beliefs even seem to have an

influence on the Mexican culture to an extent. It would seem like simply having a boarder

creates friction among people due to dramatic shifts in laws, tariffs, culture, and currency. The

devaluation of the peso caused money to hold more power in Mexico than it should have.

America took hard shifts against drugs early on, and Mexico allowed a single political party to
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influence and affect its ideals. The cartel could easily take control of the government by backing

their desired political candidate, killing people they disagreed with, and bribing others.

One of the main issues with drugs and enforcement is the idea of righteousness,

dominated by hard choices and dedication to living a life with money. In many ways, it makes it

hard to determine what right and wrong is. Why are there so many people that want drugs and

money? Are either of these things really any good when it involves killing people? What is one

to do with the dirty money they are receiving, and is it right for people to be sitting in prison

their whole lives? The whole thing is terrible really. The most important thing Wolf Boys

teaches, is that drugs are not good. Working with them and corrupting oneself does not pay in

the long run. Even the biggest guys in the cartel eventually get shot or go to prison.
Nicholas Hronik

Works Cited

Slater, Dan. Wolf Boys: Two Teenage Assassins and Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel.
Allen & Unwin, 2016.