At the devil's table : the untold story of the insider who brought down the Cali Cartel /

In the 1990s, Jorge Salcedo was a Colombian engineer and military reservist proud to be enlisted in an effort to assassinate Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellin cocaine cartel. His recruiters were Cal. gentlemen. heads of Escobar's rival cocaine cartel. Salcedo admired their sense of family and their restraint, despite their unsavory business dealings. As head of security, he was only tangentially involved, at a distance that allowed him to keep his hands clean and maintain denial. But as he was drawn closer and closer to the family and its business dealings, even after Escobar's death, the Cali clan escalated its level of violence, and he could no longer deny that they were as dangerous and ruthless as Escobar. Salcedo had to find a way out and ended up working with American DEA agents to bring down the syndicate. Investigative reporter Rempel spent 10 years interviewing Salcedo (now in the U.S. witness protection program) to deliver a thrilling inside story of one man's efforts to destroy the cartel and free himself from its murderous grasp.--Bush, Vaness. Copyright 2010 Booklist

Jorge Salcedo's clandestine transition from a notorious drug cartel's head of security to a DEA informant.Investigative reporter Rempel's debut offers a behind-the-scenes look at a never-before-told storythe secret plot to assassinate drug lord Pablo Escobar, recounted by the man hired to do it. After eight years interviewing Salcedo, Rempel pieces together his source's unbelievable story, one in which two rival Columbian drug cartelsPablo Escobar's Medelln and the Rodrguez Orejuela brothers' Caliwaged a war for trafficking supremacy. When Salcedo met the godfathers of the Cali cartel, he was given a clear assignment: "We want Pablo Escobar dead." Driven by his own anti-Escobar views, as well as the promise of incalculable riches, Salcedo accepted, though the task was not without its problems. After a downed helicopter halted the hit, word of the attempt was soon leaked, causing Salcedo to fear for his life. Rempel's book reads like an action-packed blockbuster, complete with a cast of hot-headed, short-fused drug lords and their trigger-happy underlings. Ultimately, Escobar was not killed by Salcedo's hit squad, but by the Bloque de Bsqueda, a special-operations unit within the Colombian police force. Believing his services no longer necessary, Salcedo attempted to back out of the cartel, though his resignation was refused. One of the bosses crisply informed him, "You are one of us. You are family"making it clear that there was no escape. Salcedo's desperate attempt for an exit strategy provoked him to turn against the cartel, serving as a DEA informant and jeopardizing his life in the process.A fast-paced, heart-racing nonfiction thriller, occasionally bloated by excessive drugs, blood and bullets.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.