{"product_id":"kingpins-coyotes-25-years-as-a-special-agent-hunting-drug-cartel-bosses-and-human-smugglers-9798993956817","title":"Kingpins \u0026 Coyotes: 25 Years as a Special Agent Hunting Drug Cartel Bosses and Human Smugglers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe insider account of America's border crisis that few others could write. Go inside the investigations, the wire rooms, and the desert corridors with the special agent who helped take down El Chapo-and realized the system was still winning.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEric S. Balliet began his federal law-enforcement career on July 26, 1999, as a U.S. Border Patrol agent on the front lines of the U.S.-Mexico border. On September 11, 2001 - his second day in the U.S. Customs office, Balliet watched the towers fall. Shortly after, he was sworn in as a Special Agent, beginning a career shaped from its earliest moments by a changed America.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat followed was a twenty-five-year career spanning US Customs, ICE, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), from the desert corridors of southern Arizona to the wire rooms where cartel communications were intercepted, decoded, and turned into action.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eKingpins and Coyotes\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, Balliet takes readers inside the investigations, operations, and hidden systems that shaped America's long standing fight against drug trafficking, human smuggling, and the Sinaloa Cartel - including the covert efforts that helped locate and capture Joaquín \"El Chapo\" Guzmán.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBut this is not a victory lap.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is an honest reckoning.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe same criminal infrastructure that moves narcotics across the southern border also supports the coyote networks that move migrants through the same desert corridors. Drugs and people are different commodities, but they often travel through overlapping systems built on logistics, corruption, surveillance, violence, and profit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalliet spent twenty-five years working both sides of that equation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom desert patrols and stash houses to informant meetings, wire intercepts, cartel plazas, cross-border coordination, and Washington policy rooms, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eKingpins and Coyotes\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e reveals how the border really works and why arresting kingpins, seizing loads, and disrupting routes have never been enough to stop the machine from adapting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInside, you'll discover: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow the Sinaloa Cartel moves narcotics across America's border - and why enforcement alone has never stopped them\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow human-smuggling pipelines operate, and why so many end in tragedy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow HSI wire operations helped crack cartel communications and located one of the world's most wanted fugitives\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy capturing El Chapo changed less than most Americans were led to believe\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe hard truths about the border that politics, cable news, and official talking points rarely explain\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere other cartel books often end with the arrest, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eKingpins and Coyotes\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e asks the harder question: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDid the arrest change the system - or did the system simply keep moving?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalliet helped pursue some of the most powerful figures in the Sinaloa Cartel and watched the organization reopen for business the next morning. He enforced immigration law from the desert floor and still wrestled with the human cost of the people who died trying to cross it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not another cartel story told from a distance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is not a political talking-point book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd it is not a memoir about one agent as the hero.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a firsthand account of the machine itself - the kingpins, the coyotes, the agents, the migrants, the traffickers, the victims, the policies, and the demand that keeps the system alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor readers of \u003cem\u003eHunting El Chapo\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEl Narco\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDrug Warrior\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Fort Bragg Cartel\u003c\/em\u003e - and viewers of \u003cem\u003eNarcos\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eTrafficked\u003c\/em\u003e - \u003cem\u003eKingpins and Coyotes\u003c\/em\u003e is raw, riveting, and real.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e 1811 Enterprises LLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/30\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798993956817\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 326\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.33lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.88d","brand":"Eric S. Balliet","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52934271631541,"sku":"9798993956817","price":29.74,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/kingpins-coyotes-25-years-as-a-special-agent-hunting-drug-cartel-bosses-and-human-smugglers-9798993956817","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}