Dirty gold The rise and fall of an international smuggling ring

Jay Weaver

Book - 2021

"In March of 2017, a team of FBI agents arrested Juan Granda, Samer Barrage, and Renato Rodriguez, or as they called themselves, "the three amigos." The trio-- first identified publicly by the authors of this book-- had built a $3.6 billion dollar business in metals trading, mostly illegal Peruvian gold. Their arrests and subsequent prosecution laid bare more than a corrupt finance firm, though. Instead, Dirty Gold lifts the veil on an illegal international business that is five times as lucrative as trafficking cocaine, and arguably more dangerous. As the award-winning team of Miami Herald reporters show, illegal gold mines have become a haven for Latin American drug money. The gold is then sold to metals traders, and ultima...tely to Americans who want it in their jewelry, smartphones, and investment portfolios. By following the trail of these three traders, Dirty Gold leads us into a criminal underworld that has never before been in full view"--

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Subjects
Genres
True crime stories
Published
New York, NY : PublicAffairs, Hachette Book Group 2021.
Language
English
Main Author
Jay Weaver (author)
Other Authors
Nicholas Nehamas (author), Jim Wyss, Kyra Gurney
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xiii, 365 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781541762909
  • Cast of Characters
  • Part I.
  • Prologue
  • 1. The Party
  • 2. Moths to the Flame
  • 3. A Gold-Covered Brick
  • 4. Hand of God
  • 5. Mr. Third Rail
  • 6. The Gold Rush
  • 7. The Fed
  • 8. A Well-Oiled Machine
  • 9. Under Ferrari's Hood
  • 10. "Flight of Last Resort"
  • 11. The Crackdown
  • 12. The Raid
  • 13. La Base
  • Part II.
  • 14. The Perfect Patsy
  • 15. The College Student
  • 16. Moving Up
  • 17. A Suitcase Full of Gold
  • 18. El Patrón del Mal
  • 19. Land of the Jaguar
  • 20. "Major Unwanted Heat"
  • 21. Things Fall Apart
  • 22. Mama Customs
  • 23. "Jeffrey, We Just Had a Problem"
  • 24. The Golden Chicken
  • 25. The Wire
  • Part III.
  • 26. "A Conflict Diamond Is a Conflict Diamond"
  • 27. Operation Arch Stanton
  • 28. The Prosecutor
  • 29. "Dude, This Is Insanity"
  • 30. Turf War
  • 31. La Vuelta Larga
  • 32. The Go-By's
  • 33. "I'm Finished"
  • 34. The Fellowship of the Ring
  • 35. His Last Case
  • 36. The Secret Weapon
  • 37. "Investigations !"
  • 38. "DEA Sucks"
  • 39. Inside the War Room
  • 40. The Flip
  • 41. Jumping All the Way
  • 42. Clash of the Titans
  • 43. "Does Your Wife Know You Went There?"
  • 44. Schoonmaker's Last Gambit
  • 45. La Venganza
  • 46. Kings of the World
  • 47. "You Have Nothing to Worry About"
  • 48. The Depth of Their Betrayal
  • 49. Ferrari's Freefall
  • 50. Way Beyond Money Laundering
  • Epilogue: "They Busted Our Ass"
  • Solutions: How to Stop Dirty Gold
  • A Note on Sources
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this shocking true crime epic, the four investigative journalist authors take a deep dive into the case of three Miami businessmen who built a multibillion-dollar smuggling empire that touched several continents and opened U.S. law enforcement's eyes to yet another avenue of immorality. From 2013 to 2016, Juan Pablo Granda, Renato Rodriguez, and Samer Barrage used their company, NTR Metals, to smuggle over $3.6 billion in illegally mined gold into the U.S. The NTR Metals case drew international condemnation for its role in exploiting a lesser-known illicit economy that rivals the cocaine and blood diamond trades in terms of harm to the countries of origin: dirty gold comes from an industry in which criminals use toxic chemicals and destructive mining practices to rip the precious metal from the Andes and Amazonian riverbeds, destroying whole ecosystems and poisoning impoverished communities. The authors take the reader beyond the sensational multiagency investigation to provide a comprehensive exploration of the international precious metal trade to show how a criminal enterprise can thrive with a product where melting can erase all traces of origin easier than documents can be forged. This is a must-read for fans of Matthew Hart's Diamonds and Roberto Saviano's ZeroZeroZero. Agent: David Patterson, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Mar.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Journalists Weaver, Nicholas Nehamas, Jim Wyss, and Kyra Gurney have expanded their Miami Herald series into a comprehensive exposé of the South American gold industry. Three gold brokers in Miami, Juan Pablo Granda, Pedro David Pérez Miranda, and Renato Rodriguez (the "three amigos"), went on a Peruvian gold-buying frenzy in the Amazon for their parent company, NTR Metals, by colluding with locals to falsify documentation and skirt compliance laws. This "dirty gold" results in ecological devastation, since mercury is used to pull gold from the soil, and miners are often forced to work in perilous conditions. When Peruvian authorities cracked down, the operation moved to Chile, Bolivia, and Colombia, and Granda, Miranda, and Rodriguez continued to buy Peruvian gold that had been smuggled out. This story celebrates some big wins: some of the major players were convicted, are serving time, and are on the hook for large fines; the investigation involved cooperation between several international agencies; and prosecutors were able to sentence illicit gold brokers by charging them with money laundering. The book is extensively researched and vividly told; readers might be mentally casting a film adaptation while reading. VERDICT An important book that will enlighten readers about the disturbing impact of gold mining in the Amazon--and hopefully rouse them to action.--Karen Sandlin Silverman, Mt. Ararat Middle Sch., Topsham, ME

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A deep dive into a landmark U.S. prosecution of players in the transnational illicit gold trade. The co-authors, all journalists who have worked at the Miami Herald, closely examine the grim, little-understood world of artisanal (small-scale) gold mining, rife with malfeasance, corruption, and ecological devastation, stretching from developing nations like Chile and Peru to Miami, where precious-metal conglomerates like Elemetal sought to dominate the gold market, particularly after the 2008 recession. The narrative follows a broad cast of businessmen, smugglers, and brokers, all of whom realized that shipping illicit Chilean gold through neighboring countries would enable ready sales to firms (Elemetal and others) using forged origin documents. The authors focus on the "three amigos," macho, self-taught traders employed by Elemetal's subsidiary, NTR Metals, who were eager to bend the rules and who tracked their smuggling and money laundering on phone apps, which later incriminated them. This misbegotten white-collar--crime story unfolds against a well-rendered historical background of how such activities have fractured the fragile environments and societies of developing nations in Latin America, where remote regions have been overrun by chaotic, destructive artisanal mining. "For Peruvian criminals," write the authors, "gold had become far more lucrative than cocaine." Eventually, however, the FBI and federal prosecutors built an in-depth prosecution of the scheme, endeavoring to "lay out a vivid portrait of illegal mining, gold smuggling, and money laundering across two continents, one that captured the widespread environmental damage to the Amazon rain forest and the powerful role of drug traffickers." The authors write with a journalistic yet culturally attuned voice, but the narrative is sometimes repetitive in its frequent juxtaposition of the brutal conditions in the mine-ravaged rainforests with the wealth and colorful backstories of the key players as well as the determination and diligence of the various law enforcement agencies involved. An authoritative consideration of "dirty" gold's grip on the environment and role in rampant geopolitical corruption. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.