Dirty Gold
The Rise and Fall of an International Smuggling Ring
PublicAffairs, March 2021
The explosive story of the illegal gold trade from South America, and the three Miami businessmen who got rich on it—until it all came crashing down.
In March of 2017, a team of federal agents arrested Juan Pablo Granda, Samer Barrage, and Renato Rodriguez, or as they came to be known, “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 mined in the rain forest.
Their arrest and subsequent prosecution laid bare more than a scheme between a few corrupt traders. Dirty Gold lifts the veil on a massive and very illegal international business that is more lucrative than trafficking cocaine, and often just as dangerous.
As this award-winning team of current and former Miami Herald reporters shows, illegal gold mines have become a haven for Latin American drug money. The gold is sold to metals traders, and ultimately to scores of unwitting Americans in their jewelry and phones. By following the trail of these three traders, Dirty Gold leads us into a sprawling criminal underworld that has never before been in full view.
“[A] shocking true crime epic…show[s] 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.”
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[An] engrossing account with a cast of picaresque characters … [that] tells the full story of how unethically mined (‘artisanal’) gold makes it from shanty camps like La Pampa in southern Peru — a Stygian hellhole of brothels, child labor and violence — through the global supply chain to become jewelry or part of the motherboard in your smartphone.”
―The New York Times Book Review