Outlaws Inc.: Under the Radar and on the Black Market with the World's Most Dangerous Smugglers

One of globalization's seamier corners%E2%80%94the shadowy network of Russian aviators flying rattletrap cargo planes full of contraband to the world's hellholes%E2%80%94is poked with a stick in this colorful expos%C3%A9-cum-adventure story. BBC correspondent Power flies along with "Mickey" and his crew of Soviet Air Force vets in their Ilyushin-76 transport plane, a model prized for its secret cargo holds that customs officials never check. The crew and their ilk go everywhere there's money to be made, legal or not: they transport building supplies, generators, and heroin in Afghanistan, humanitarian aid and blood diamonds in Africa, cocaine in Latin America, and arms almost everywhere. It's a story rife with ironies%E2%80%94the same flight, the author notes, could carry U.N. food for refugees and Kalashnikovs for the militias who destroyed their homes%E2%80%94which Potter traces upward to the hypocrisies of financiers and governments. But the book's heart is his vivid, atmospheric reportage on the hungover flyboys who subject their planes%E2%80%94held together more with duct tape than rivets%E2%80%94to potholed airstrips, crazed aerobatics, and ground fire. Through the dissolute romanticism peeks an arresting glimpse of an airborne proletariat desperate for a risky paycheck. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Aug.)