{"product_id":"the-wireless-operator-the-untold-story-of-the-british-sailor-who-invented-the-modern-drug-trade","title":"The Wireless Operator: The Untold Story of the British Sailor Who Invented the Modern Drug Trade","description":"\u003cp\u003eA propulsive and illuminating biography. Tuchs deep dive is suspenseful and well researched, shedding fascinating light on a shadowy 20thcentury figure. Publishers WeeklyGovernment agencies and rival factions were closing in. His lookalike had already fallen victim to professional hitmen and his oncepowerful allies in Cuban intelligence and the DEA could no longer guarantee his safety. How did a boy from Manchester revolutionize the criminal world and become the largest marijuana trafficker in American history?This is the neverbeforetold story of Harold Derber, the debonair British Merchant Navy veteran who pioneered the modern drug trade with his groundbreaking invention: the drug mothership. Through his ghost fleet of drug ships, Derber eventually became the chief supplier of marijuana to postwar America. This gripping true tale follows Derber from humble beginnings in Manchester, England, to his assassination in the sunkissed streets of Miami. Along the way, Derbers story takes in some of the most significant events of the twentieth century  the Second World Wars Battle of the Atlantic, the Cuban Revolution and the murky shadows of the Cold War.Based on newly declassified government files, undercover photographs, an unpublished memoir, and firsthand accounts from both Derbers trafficking accomplices and the agents who pursued them, The Wireless Operator reveals the astonishing origins of the modern narcotics trade. Bringing his extraordinary life into focus for the first time, this gripping transatlantic tale offers a complex portrait of a singular criminal mastermind who operated at the fault lines of state power, secrecy, and organized crime  and whose legacy still echoes in todays global war on drugs.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Icon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45902249590982,"sku":"DADAX1837732450","price":10.18,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0695\/9389\/1014\/files\/71tVxueGodL.jpg?v=1780339823","url":"https:\/\/ergodemedia.com\/products\/the-wireless-operator-the-untold-story-of-the-british-sailor-who-invented-the-modern-drug-trade","provider":"Ergodemedia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}