Roberto Saviano - ZeroZeroZero

More than anyone else I would like to thank Federica Campana, who has followed this book since its inception, sacrificing her sleep and her free time. She has done it all with true passion. Her research and her analytical approach, her care and her competence have enabled ZeroZeroZero to grow with each new edition in every country in which it has been published. I thank her for her dedication and commitment to this work, which were contagious. Collaborators like her are a precious gift; they are what every writer would hope to find in his path: an indispensable ally, a fresh pair of eyes, another heart beating on each story, two more lungs breathing among the same horrifying mechanisms that make you lose your sleep and your faith in the world. I thank her for the work she has done on the language of the book: wherever ZeroZeroZero goes, and even though many readers will read it in translation, it has lost none of its original vision, nor seen its spirit diluted.

• • •

I would like to thank Penguin Press for believing in this ambitious project. Thanks to Andrew Wylie for our conversations and for the stories only he knows and reveals. Thanks to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Stefano Albertini, Roberta Garbarini-Philippe, and Annalisa Liuzzo for making me feel at home in New York when I didn’t know anything or anyone and when I needed everything, above all advice and tranquillity. Thanks to Rocco Castoro and Professor Gaetana Marrone for appreciating my work. Thanks to Vice and Shane Smith for welcoming my writing and paying heed to my projects. Thanks to Eddy Moretti for loving these stories when I told him about them.

I thank Helena Janeczek, who gave me her advice on literary structure.

I thank Carlo Buga, who dove headlong into this intricate mass of stories and helped me find a guiding light among hundreds of pages. Thanks to Gianluca Foglia, a fierce and determined editor.

To the Carabinieri, the police, the Finance Guard, the ROS, the GICO, the SCO, the DIA, and the DDA of Rome, Naples, Milan, Reggio Calabria, Catanzaro, and all the ones I forgot to mention here, I am extraordinarily grateful for allowing me to read, study, and sometimes experience firsthand their investigations and operations: Alga, Box, Caucedo, Crimine-Infinito, Decollo, Decollo Bis, Decollo Money, Decollo Ter, Dinero, Dionisio, Due Torri Connection, Flowers 2, Galloway-Tiburon, Golden Jail, Green Park, Igres, Magna Charta, Maleta 2006, Meta 2010, Notte bianca, Overloading, Pollicino, Pret à porter, Puma 2007, Revolution, Solare, Tamanaco, Tiro grosso, White 2007, White City.

Thanks to the DEA, the FBI, the Guardia Civil, the Mossos d’Esquadra, Scotland Yard, the French Gendarmerie Nationale, Interpol, the Brazilian Polícia Civil, some members of the Mexican Policía Federal, some members of the Colombian Policía Nacional, some members of the Russian Policija, who have accompanied me in their investigations and operations: Cabana, Cornerstone, Dark Waters, Delfín blanco, Leyenda, Limpieza, Millennium, Omni Presence, Padrino, Pier Pressure, Processo 8000, Project Colisée, Project Coronado, Russiagate, Reckoning, Relentless, SharQC 2009, Sword, Xcellerator.

My gratitude goes to all the magistrates I’ve studied and spoken with for all these years. There are many things I could not have discovered without them.

Thanks to my friends Lydia Cacho, Anabel Hernández, and Diego Osorno, who have made a “Mexican” of me over the years. Thanks to Glenda Martínez, Malcolm Beith, Christophe Champin, Yoani Sánchez for their opinions and their commitment. I am grateful for Robert Friedman’s vision, Misha Glenny’s intelligence, and Ricardo Ravelo’s analytical talent. Thanks to Peppe d’Avanzo; we’d started talking about this book, but as cruel fate would have it, we will never be able to do so again.

Many thanks to the New York police agent AdN. He knows why.

Thanks to Mark Bray, Valeria Castelli, and the Occupy Wall Street guys, who taught me so much.

Thanks to Kim Ziegler and Rachel Love for their guidance with my English.

Thanks to Bono Vox for listening to these stories when I was still wound up in them and for his lifelong open invitation to U2 concerts.

I thank Salman Rushdie, who taught me how to be free even when surrounded by seven armed bodyguards.

I thank Nouriel Roubini, who endured my South American stories one endless night and with whom I talked too much about finance and crime.

Thanks to my followers on Facebook and Twitter: thousands of people who’ve held my sense of loneliness at bay and made me feel like I was out talking to people even when I wasn’t.

Thanks to Sasha Polakow Suransky and The New York Times, who allowed me to talk about how the drug trade affected the economic crisis when everyone else was treating it as a marginal issue.

Thanks to David Dannon, who made me another person for six months, free and almost happy.

I thank all the people of the Arma dei Carabinieri who manage my life.

Thanks to Manuela De Caro, always with me, at all times and all costs.

Thanks to my family; I can never forgive myself for the high price they are paying because of me. These lines of thanks will not suffice. This, I know.

And I thank you, American readers, for embracing my stories in your welcoming land. Thank you because, by reading these words, you will make them dangerous. Criminal organizations do not fear writers; they fear readers.

— Roberto Saviano

Angelo De Gennaro, gifted teacher of Italian language and culture, advised and inspired me on nearly every page.

Fellow translator Ann McGarrell buoyed me with her wry wisdom.

Patricia Caprotti, Rita Fabbrizio, Paola Inzillo, Gianni Marizza, Marinetta Piva, and Leonardo Venturini fielded a vast array of questions.

Daniel Jewiss, police officer and soldier, offered his expertise and encouragement.

My editor, Scott Moyers, provided perspective and a sense of humor.

My warmest thanks for their generosity, meticulousness, and patience.

— Virginia Jewiss, translator

The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.

Acapulco summit (1989), 29–31, 34, 57–60

acetone, 75, 113, 118

ACP Bank, 226

active cuts, 118

Adams, Barton, 253

Adelaide, Australia, 194

Adriano restaurant, 222, 226, 236

Aegadian Islands, 230, 234

Afghan War, 269

Africa, 52, 74, 180, 187, 219, 233–34, 254–55, 291, 292, 297, 309, 312–25

Agata (sniffer dog), 345

Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI), Mexican, 100–101, 365

Agua Prieta, Mexico, 40

Aguilar Guajardo, Rafael, 44

Águilas Negras (Black Eagles), 165

AK-47 assault rifles, 93, 100

alcohol, 376

Aldana Ibarra, Miguel, 32

Alexandra (trawler), 180

Algeciras, Spain, 306–7

alkaloids, 113–14

Almeida, Juan, 280, 281–82

Almenno San Bartolomeo, Italy, 211–12

Almond-flavored cocaine, 118

aluminum, 332

Alvarado, Gonzalo de, 88

Álvarez Vázquez, Gerardo (El Indio), 50

Amati, Lucio, 199

Amazon River, 295

ammonia, 113, 118

Amnesty International, 71, 89

amphetamines, 39, 118

Amsterdam, 234–36, 308, 313, 334

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, 313, 314

Andean folk paintings, 327

angel dust, 113

Ángel Miguel (former Kaibil soldier), 85–90, 91

Angola, 322

Antilles, 225, 291, 300, 312, 313–14

Antimafia District Directorate (DDA), Italian, 168, 185–86, 198, 202, 205, 236, 237, 298, 300, 305, 335