This is an inside account of the US Drug Enforcement Agency's struggle to devise effective strategies as it fights the war against drugs. The author, a former New York City prosecutor, takes two of the DEA's top priority operations - Operation Snowcap in Bolivia, where DEA agents dressed and armed like soldiers raid cocaine laboratories in the Amazon jungle and lead paramilitary assaults on traffickers' havens; and Operation Calico, whose target is the Cali Cartel, the most powerful of Colombia's cocaine distribution organizations, accounting for more than half of the US and European consumption. The book portrays the life of the special agent; the excitement, determination and achievements, as well as - more frequently - the frustration, dangers and failures.