"I realise what they did to me in there. How they turned me into a savage, only half human, bathing in a trough and eating food fit for animals and locking me in a cage every night." ? It's 1994. South Africa is on the brink of freedom. On the verge of a big break in modelling, Miss SA finalist, 21-year-old Vanessa Goosen is caught up in every traveller's nightmare. Duped into carrying books with 1.7 kilograms of heroin hidden in them, Goosen is arrested and tried on drug trafficking charges. Deaf to her pleas of innocence, the Thai courts sentence Goosen to death. On appeal, her sentence is commuted to life, to be served in Bangkok's notorious Lard Yao prison. Pregnant, terrified and desperately alone, Goosen begins a harrowing 16-year journey behind bars... -- Page 4 of cover.

Winner of the British Society of Criminology Book Prize, 2015 Fleetwood explores how women become involved in trafficking, focusing on the lived experiences of women as drug mules. Offering theoretical insights from gender theory and transnational criminology, Fleetwood argues that women's participation in the drugs trade cannot be adequately understood through the lenses of either victimization or agency.

In the flow of drugs to the United States from Latin America, women have always played key roles as bosses, business partners, money launderers, confidantes, and couriers—work rarely acknowledged. Elaine Carey’s study of women in the drug trade offers a new understanding of this intriguing subject, from women drug smugglers in the early twentieth century to the cartel queens who make news today. Using international diplomatic documents, trial transcripts, medical and public welfare studies, correspondence between drug czars, and prison and hospital records, the author’s research shows that history can be as gripping as a thriller.

Alfred Molano reveals the lives of the couriers who transport drugs from Colombia into the United States and Europe. Colombians from many different backgrounds tell the story of how they became involved in smuggling, forced to find a way out of poverty in the middle of an unending civil war.

Meet Chris Heifner, overachieving drug runner for a Mexican marijuana cartel. But he wasn’t always. This one-time econ student from Texas—broke, deep in debt, and facing eviction with a growing family to support—yielded to the temptation that he had resisted countless times before and went to work for his best friend from college, Jake Andes. But it wasn’t exactly a Career Day kind of job. Andes was a big-time dealer, captaining a $25-million-a-year empire. Heifner became a mule, running multi-hundred-pound loads from Juárez around the country. After digging himself out of his financial hole, Heifner contemplated going clean. But the money and the lifestyle had hooked him, so he kept moving loads. He was so good that Andes was grooming him to become his second-in-command. And then Heifner got busted with $300,000 worth of dope in a rental car, and his world came crashing down. After bailing out of jail, Heifner went home for a much-needed shower. He emerged to find Andes and a hit man hired to kill him and his family should he decide to narc. Heifner realized that he had only one option: to flip and become an informant for the DEA. That’s when life got really dangerous.

Winner of the British Society of Criminology Book Prize, 2015 Fleetwood explores how women become involved in trafficking, focusing on the lived experiences of women as drug mules. Offering theoretical insights from gender theory and transnational criminology, Fleetwood argues that women's participation in the drugs trade cannot be adequately understood through the lenses of either victimization or agency.

From sex slaves to drug mules, The Daily Beast's Rome Bureau Chief uncovers a terrifying and intricate web of criminal activity right on Europe’s doorstep. Chasing the money from kidnapped Nigerian hair braiders to ISIS gunrunners, this is the story of modern slavery in Europe and how the plight of those most in need is being wilfully disregarded. Caught between Camorra arms dealers and Nigerian drug gangs along Italy’s attractive coast, each year thousands of refugees and migrants are lured into their murky underworld. In this powerful exposé, investigative journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau follows the weapons trail, meets the sex-trafficked women trapped by black magic, the nuns who try to save them and the Italian police who turn a blind eye as the most urgent issues facing Europe play out in broad daylight.