Jeff Buck

Takedown: A Small-Town Cop's Battle Against the Hells Angels and the Nation's Biggest Drug Gang by Jeff Buck (with Jon Land & Lindsay Preston) is an inspirational book about the war on drugs and how law enforcement fights it in today's world, but it is also a history lesson using a case Jeff Buck worked on to show how criminal drug enterprises came to be and how they continue to evolve today.
Right from the beginning, Jeff Buck makes it clear that his passion is removing as many people and as much illegal substance as possible from the streets as often and in as much volume as he can. He describes several of his past cases and how those cases have helped him develop his style of meticulous and complete research to capture as much drugs and assets as possible. Buck talks of using "walk" money (cash forfeitures from previous cases) for undercover operations and "working up the food chain" (getting as high as possible in the criminal syndicate, to the criminal business owners, above the dealers, runners, and distributors) as far as he can. It was really enlightening to understand how it all works and more importantly how much time and how many people it takes for a large takedown to occur. Jeff Buck constantly reminds the reader that while he likes to lead the large takedown effort, that none of it could happen without the support of several enforcement agencies and offices and most importantly, countless men who believe in the same cause as Buck.
The book flows back and forth between the case Buck is working on and necessary backstory with ease. I can feel Buck's addictively frenetic energy at times oozing from the pages and all the while I feel like I am getting an education in the criminal drug world. The book is gritty and honest and yet still quite entertaining. I also appreciated that although there were a lot of names and places going on, the book kept it organized and straight forward enough for me to keep up with all of the players.
I would recommend this book to anyone, although it might be depressing to someone in the criminal drug world. I admire Jeff Buck's book and I admire Jeff Buck's drive to make our society a better place!
***I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway!***… (mais)