Snowblind (novel)
Encyclopedia
Snowblind: A brief career in the cocaine trade written by American author Robert Sabbag
Robert Sabbag
Robert Sabbag is an American journalist and author of two books on drugs smuggling in the United States:Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade and the follow-up book Smokescreen: A True Adventure...

 in 1976 is a non-fiction account about an extraordinary character named Zachary Swan who turned his hand to smuggling cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 from Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 into the US. Set in the 1970s before organised crime took over the cocaine trade, it is based primarily in New York and Bogotá and features a variety of colourful characters. Unlike other smugglers at the time Swan concocted a vast array of scams designed both to evade customs officials and protect his 'employees' from prosecution, all of which are highly imaginative and entertaining.

Trivia

  • Howard Marks
    Howard Marks
    Dennis Howard Marks is a Welsh author and former drug smuggler who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases, supposed connections with groups such as the CIA, the IRA, MI6, and the Mafia, and his eventual conviction at the hands of the American Drug...

     wrote an introduction for the UK 1998 Cannongate reprint.


Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...

designed a repackaged version limited to 1000 copies with sleeve, reinforced mirror hard backed cover, imitation credit card, (in the name of Zacharie Swan), and a rolled up $100 bill hidden in a cut away trench in the middle of the book. All three conspirators, Sabbag, Marks and Hirst hand signed all 1000.
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