Bestselling author Douglas Century reveals the untold story of the epic rise and fall of Boris Nayfeld, also known as Biba, one of the most notorious Russian mob bosses of our era.

Boris Nayfeld, a.k.a. “Biba,” is the last living boss of the old-school Russian mob in America, and he’s survived to tell it all. Filled with sex, drugs, and murder, Biba’s story is a mind-boggling journey that took him from petty street crime in the USSR to billion-dollar embezzlement in America.

Born in Soviet-era Belarus, abandoned by his parents in infancy, Biba’s brutal upbringing left him hungry for more—more power, control, and money. Taking advantage of the rampant corruption in the Soviet Union, Biba’s teenage hooliganism quickly turned into bolder “black cash” rackets, making him, by Soviet standards, a very rich young man. When authorities took notice and threatened him with “the supreme measure”— execution by firing squad—he managed to get out of the USSR just in time.

Within months of landing in America, his intimidating presence and street smarts quickly made him legendary in the Soviet émigré community of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and launched him to the top of New York’s Russian Jewish mob, one of the world’s most inventive, powerful and violent criminal organizations. After decades as a globe-trotting boss, and three stints in U.S. federal prisons he remains unbroken and unrepentant, even as his entire life has unraveled around him.

Now seventy-four years old, Biba is a lion in winter. Douglas Century vividly brings the notorious gangster to life in these pages, telling not only his epic journey but also the history of the Russian mob in America. 

At the age of eighteen, Aaron Cohen left Beverly Hills to prove himself in the crucible of the armed forces. He was determined to be a part of Israel's most elite security cadre, akin to the American Green Berets and Navy SEALs. After fifteen months of grueling training designed to break down each individual man and to rebuild him as a warrior, Cohen was offered the only post a non-Israeli can hold in the special forces. In 1996 he joined a top-secret, highly controversial unit that dispatches operatives disguised as Arabs into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank to abduct terrorist leaders and bring them to Israel for interrogation and trial.

Between 1996 and 1998, Aaron Cohen would learn Hebrew and Arabic; become an expert in urban counterterror warfare, the martial art of Krav Maga, and undercover operations; and participate in dozens of life-or-death missions. He would infiltrate a Hamas wedding to seize a wanted terrorist and pose as an American journalist to set a trap for one of the financiers behind the Dizengoff Massacre, taking him down in a brutal, hand-to-hand struggle. A propulsive, gripping read, Cohen's story is a rare, fly-on-the-wall view into the shadowy world of "black ops" that redefines invincible strength, true danger, and inviolable security.

This is the untold story of the American federal agent who captured the world’s most-wanted drug-lord.

Every generation has its larger-than-life criminal legend living beyond the reach of the law: Billy the Kid, Al Capone, Ronnie Biggs, Pablo Escobar. But for every one of these criminals, there’s a Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett or Slipper of the Yard. For Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán-Loera a.k.a. ‘El Chapo’ – the 21st century’s most notorious criminal – that man is D.E.A. Special Agent Andrew Hogan.

This is the incredible story of Hogan’s seven-year-long chase to capture El Chapo, a multibillionaire drug-lord and escape-artist posing as a Mexican Robin Hood, who in reality was a brutal sociopath responsible for the murders of thousands. His greedy campaign to take over his rivals’ territories resulted in an unprecedented war with a body count of over 100,000.

We follow Hogan on his quest to achieve the seemingly impossible: to cross the border into Mexico and arrest El Chapo, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, a billionaire and Public Enemy No. 1, who had been evading capture for more than a decade and had earned a reputation for being utterly untouchable.

This intimate thriller tells how Hogan single-mindedly and methodically climbed the ladder within the hierarchy of the Sinaloa Cartel – the world’s wealthiest and most powerful drug-trafficking organization – by creating one of the most sophisticated undercover operations in the history of the D.E.A. From infiltrating Chapo’s inner circle to leading a white-knuckle manhunt with an elite brigade of Mexican Marines, Hogan left no stone unturned in his hunt for the world’s most powerful drug kingpin.

Una combinación de las películas Manhunt, Killing Pablo y Zero Dark Thirty, esta sensacional obra de misterio, y de alta tecnología de investigación, de Andrew Hogan y Douglas Century —que pronto será una gran película producida por Sony— es una crónica impresionante de un capítulo en la guerra contra las drogas en el siglo veinte: la experiencia exclusiva de un agente federal estadounidense y sus ocho años de cacería tras El Chapo — el capo de la droga más buscado del mundo, que evadió a la ley por más de una década.

Toda generación tiene un criminal: Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Dillinger, Al Capone, John Gotti, Pablo Escobar. Pero cada uno de estos notorios delincuentes tenía a un investigador rastreando sus pasos: Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, Eliot Ness, Steve Murphy. Para el señor de la droga, Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán, Loera, mejor conocido como “El Chapo”, ese policía es Andrew Hogan, exagente especial de la Drug Enforcement Administration (Oficina de Control de Drogas; DEA, por sus siglas en inglés).

En el 2006, recien graduado de la Academia de la DEA, Hogan se dirige a Arizona, en donde rápidamente se encuentra dentro de una serie de espeluznantes casos encubiertos, que lo coloca, sin darse cuenta, tras la pista de Guzmán, el jefe del cártel de Sinaloa, un multimillonario según Forbes, y enemigo público # 1 de Estados Unidos. Seis años después, como jefe de la Oficina de la DEA en la ciudad de México a cargo del cártel de Sinaloa, Hogan se da cuenta que su vida y la del Chapo están irónicamente, en sendas paralelas: ambos se obsesionan por los detalles.

En una nueva versión de los clásicos del oeste, pero a escala mundial, Cazando a El Chapo relata la búsqueda de Hogan por lograr lo que parecía imposible, desde infiltrarse en el círculo íntimo de El Chapo, a dirigir una cacería humana con una brigada elite de oficiales de la marina mexicana; derribando una a una las fortalezas del cartel, y en última instancia llevando al Chapo a la justicia.

Este relato cinematográfico que narra la implacable investigación de Hogan y su equipo se desarrolla a gran velocidad, llevando al lector trás bastidores en una de las operaciones antinarcóticos más sofisticadas y peligrosas en la historia de Estados Unidos y México.

Was bedeutet es, undercover zu arbeiten? Man muss zum Beispiel mit einem Drogenboss, der über eine Privatarmee von 17.000 Kämpfern verfügt, vier Jahre lang Geschäfte abwickeln, bis man ihn ausschalten kann. Oder man muss sich vor einem mexikanischen Kokainkartell als Auftragsmörder ausgeben und die Kartellbosse eiskalt täuschen. Edward Follis machte genau das. Denn Follis war 27 Jahre lang bei der US-amerikanischen Drogenbehörde DEA, hat Dutzende Identitäten gelebt, um Drogenhändler zu fassen und deren Geldströme zu unterbinden. Vor allem aber hat er in führender Position dazu beigetragen, die DEA von einer lokalen US-amerikanischen Behörde zu einer global operierenden, hoch technisierten Spezialeinheit umzuformen. – Spannend wie Don Winslow. Aber mit dem Unterschied, dass sich alles genau so zugetragen hat. Hardboiled and true.

A highly decorated veteran agent recounts his incredible undercover career, and reveals the shocking links between narcotics trafficking and terrorism.

What exactly is ‘undercover’? From a law-enforcement perspective, it’s the art of skillfully eliciting incriminating statements.

Edward Follis mastered this dark art over the course of his distinguished 27 years with the US’s Drug Enforcement Administration, where he bought bags of coke in a red Corvette, negotiated multi-million-dollar deals on board private jets, and developed covert relationships with men who were not only international drug-traffickers, but — in some cases — operatives for Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Mexican federation of cartels.

Spanning five continents and filled with harrowing stories about the world’s most ruthless drug lords and terrorist networks, Follis’s memoir reads like a thriller. Yet every word is true, and every story is documented. The first and only insider’s account of the confluence between narco-trafficking and terrorist organisations, The Dark Art is an electrifying page-turner.

PRAISE FOR EDWARD FOLLIS AND DOUGLAS CENTURY

'Utterly compelling. I had to remind myself that Follis's story is fact, as the action, danger and situations he experienced read like those in any good thriller. Follis tells his story with as much reverence for the kingpins he targeted as he does for his own accomplishments. It was a confrontational read, but it also provided insight into the intricacies of the fight between good and evil and the link between terrorism and drug trafficking.' Good Reading Magazine