Snow on the Atlantic: How Cocaine Came to Europe

In the 1980s, Europe’s cocaine trade was in full swing. Controlled by powerful Columbian cartels, much of this cocaine was smuggled in through the ports and fishing villages of Galicia in north-western Spain, where smuggling has been a way of life for generations. Coming at a time when Spain was still shaking off the legacy of fascist dictatorship, the drug trade offered a way out of poverty and unemployment for many, but also unleashed a wave of addiction and violent crime. Even today, the drug runners remain a feared presence in Galicia, with a new generation of enterprising ‘narcos’ emerging to replace those that have been jailed or killed. In Flour, journalist Nacho Carretero tells the incredible story of how this windswept and otherwise unremarkable corner of Spain became the cartels’ gateway into Europe. Immersing himself in the life and history of the region, and interviewing everyone from addicts and smugglers to crime bosses and DEA agents, Carretero’s book is a riveting and often shocking account of drug running and narco violence at the very heart of Europe.

Reviews of Snow on the Atlantic: How Cocaine Came to Europe

`A Spanish story nobody ever told. A unique story, written with a novel's prose, but beware: this is all true.'Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia`Just as the coast of Galicia has become a gate-way for one of the most potent substances to flood Europe, this excellent book becomes an entry point into understanding a crucial aspect of the history of our continent – an aspect historians so far have overlooked.'Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany