''Snowblind: A Brief Career In The Cocaine Trade'' is a book by American author

Robert Sabbag Robert Sabbag is an American author and journalist. His books include '' Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade,'' and the memoir ''Down Around Midnight,'' about a fatal plane crash he survived in 1979. Personal Sabbag, the son of a car ...

. First published in 1976, the book is a work of literary nonfiction that chronicles the smuggling career of Zachary Swan, who became adept at trafficking

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

from

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

into the US in the early 1970s, before organized crime took over the cocaine trade. The events take place primarily in New York City and

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

and feature a variety of colorful characters. Unlike other smugglers of that era, Swan concocted a variety of scams designed both to evade customs officials and to protect his accomplices from prosecution.

Trivia

Howard Marks Dennis Howard Marks (13 August 1945 – 10 April 2016) was a Welsh drug smuggler and author who achieved notoriety as an international Cannabis (drug), cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he claimed to have been sm ...

wrote an introduction for the UK 1998

Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. David ...

reprint. *

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...

designed a repackaged version limited to 1,000 copies with sleeve, reinforced back-cover mirror, imitation credit card (in the name of Zachary Swan), and a rolled up $100 bill hidden in a hollow cut out of the middle of the book. Sabbag, Marks, and Hirst all signed each book.

References

Non-fiction books about Colombian drug cartels Cocaine in the United States Books about cocaine Bobbs-Merrill Company books Works about smuggling {{Nonfiction-book-stub