The Last Kilo: Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire That Seduced America

In this sizzling true crime account, bestseller English (Dangerous Rhythms) delves into the world of cocaine trafficking in 1980s Miami. His focus is Augusto “Willy” Falcon, kingpin of a group called Los Muchachos, who imported as many as 75 tons and $2.6 billion of cocaine into South Florida from the 1970s through the early ’90s. Falcon was born in Cuba, and his family fled the Castro regime for Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood in 1967, when he was 11 years old. There, a teenage Falcon dropped out of school, got married, and began dealing cocaine with a “coke for arms” group funding anti-Castro forces. He worked alongside his former high school friend, powerboat racer Sal Maglut, launching Los Muchachos and expanding their operations across Latin America. Reported largely from English’s interviews with Falcon after he was released from prison in 2018 (after serving 14 years), the glittering narrative follows the efforts of George H.W. Bush to bring down Los Muchachos, Falcon’s friendships with notorious figures including Pablo Escobar and Manuel Noriega, and his downfall after a 1999 federal indictment. Though the narrative sprawls in places, it moves at a brisk clip, with all the glamor and betrayal of top-notch crime fiction. Readers will be rapt. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (Dec.)