Wolf Boys

At first glance Gabriel Cardona is the poster-boy American teenager: great athlete, bright, handsome, and charismatic. But the streets of his border town of Laredo, Texas, are poor and dangerous, and it isn't long before Gabriel abandons his promising future for the allure of the Zetas, a drug cartel with roots in the Mexican military. His younger friend. Bart, as well as others from Gabriel's childhood join him in working for the Zetas, boosting cars and smuggling drugs, eventually catching the eye of the cartel's leadership.

Meanwhile, Mexican-born detective Robert Garcia has worked hard all his life and is now struggling to raise his family in America. As violence spills over the border, Detective Garcia's pursuit of the boys and their cartel leaders puts him face to face with the urgent consequences of a war he sees as unwinnable. In Wolf Boys Dan Slater shares their stories, taking us from the Sierra Madre mountaintops to the dusty, dark alleys of Laredo, Texas, on a harrowing, often brutal journey into the heart of the Mexican drug trade.

A nonfiction thriller, Wolf Boys depicts more than just Gabriel, Bart, and the officers who took them down. It shows, through vivid detail and rich, often moving narrative, the way in which the border itself is changing, disappearing, and posing new terrifying and yet largely unseen threats to American security. Their stories show how poverty, ideas about identity, and government ignorance have warped the definition of the American dream.

Praise for Wolf Boys

"The truth is stranger than fiction and sometimes it's much more harrowing. Wolf Boys is one of those times. Dan Slater has put together a riveting story that takes us on an unforgettable descent into the dark heart of the drug trade."—Michael Connelly

“A hell of a story… undeniably gripping.”—The New York Times Book Review

"Wolf Boys is a rare book that reads like a thriller without aiming to be one. With courageous detail and unforgettable characters, Slater will bring you to feel for the marginalized Americans on both sides of the conflict.”—Jeff Hobbs, author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace

“Wolf Boys should be required reading, especially for anyone who supports the blood-chilling, appalling trade in illegal drugs.”—Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club

“A grisly yet compelling tale of impoverished Mexican-American youth molded into assassins…Slater adeptly develops a sprawling narrative…with an empathetic eye and careful prose, vividly rendering a border region of ‘extreme poverty and garish wealth…elaborate courtesy and low-barbarian violence.’ Engrossing and readable yet nightmarish vision of a hyperviolent and corporatized narcotics industry, seducing a new generation with minimal alternatives.”—Kirkus

“Raw, gut-wrenching…a must-read for fans of true crime and investigative journalism.”—Library Journal

"A solid and popular addition to every library’s true-crime shelf...Slater’s careful and exhaustive research delivers a thoughtful portrait of the illicit drug trade...a riveting narrative."—Booklist, Starred Review

“Wolf Boys includes enough history to keep the Mexican drug trade in perspective, but it is Slater's storytelling that carries the day…With tenacity and flair, Slater spins a captivating account of Texas teen assassins in Mexican cartels and the authorities who try to contain them.”—Shelf Awareness

“Thoroughly researched with stark details, Wolf Boys shines a glaring light on the atrocities of cartel life.”—Associated Press

“Dan Slater’s account…gives it an intimately human face…It is a tribute to Slater that he can make us see Gabriel more like a child soldier caught in a military conflict than as a monstrous killer…While we know where all of this will end, Slater tells a skillful tale drawing Cardona and Garcia’s lives together, while bringing readers deeply into both sides of a borderland shaped by corruption and greed. Neither Gabriel Cardona nor Robert Garcia are pawns, but their choices are constrained by a world not entirely of their own making. Slater’s triumph is in making us see that.”—Washington Independent Review of Books

"This is 'Beyond Breaking Bad' for real... Slater knows how to tell a thrilling story in long form. This book, excerpted in Texas Monthly and banned in the Texas prison system, also illuminates the inner lives of the Laredo and Nuevo Laredo hoods far from the tourist traps and NAFTA highways."—Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman

"An insanely riveting narrative."—Joel McHale

"Slater's book has the same kind of feel, the same kind of first-hand psychological insight into the minds of those characters as the classic non-fiction novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote....should be an eye-opener for parents, especially."—Randy Beamer, News 4 San Antonio

"[A]s difficult to put down as it is to recover from."—Erica Rivera, Crave Online

"One context in which we don’t often hear about child soldiers is the drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet...some thirty thousand minors have been pressed into playing a role in the country’s ongoing criminal insurgency, and several thousand of them have been killed. Wolf Boys offers a bracingly intimate glimpse of how this insurgency looks from the point of view of the young killers on the front lines."—Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker

"Wolf Boys gives you a snapshot, in real time, of what is actually happening on the border."—Jesus Torres, Asst. Chief of Police, Laredo Police Dept.

"A modern-day masterpiece."—Gangsters Inc.

"Exhaustively reported and frighteningly intimate."–Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

"I was amazed and impressed by the author's research, courage, and style. I recommend it highly...Believe me, it will give you insight into another world and a totally different perspective."—Judith Zaffirini, Texas State Senator (D-Laredo)