Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI, and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty

I really enjoyed this book! It was interesting to read about the take down of the Zeta Cartel and how corrupt they were in the quarter horse industry. Book is well written and keeps you wanting to read more!

“Bloodlines” is a must-read for any true crime or FBI fan. I’d also recommend the book to anyone who want to achieve even a modicum of knowledge of the on-going struggle with the Mexican drug cartels. This is a sobering, if not frightening read.

Most interesting, and informative. Added a lot of information about the Quarter Horse advancements. Money laundering is very complex but seems as though the equine industry is aided.

Everyone should read this book that doesn't understand how much influence the drug culture coming from Mexico has on the US. Not only does it ruin lives of our youth and families, but was devastating to the horses as well. The horses suffered from the hands of these people who were just using them for their entertainment and to launder their dirty money. Of all the All American's I have watched run over the years, the 2010 All American was the only one I could distinctly remember as having been "strange" to imagine the horse winning. As a horse person, I knew right off something was wrong, and of course, many in the industry did too, but couldn't or wouldn't say anything at that time. I have never had a racehorse, but it was so obvious. In a greedy, ego inflated industry, it is always hard for people to choose to do the right thing when there is so much money floating around apparently. Thank you to the FBI and Ms. del Bosque for having the guts to stand up and fight.

It is about a FBI money-laundering case involving a Mexican drug cartel and quarter horses.This book generally provides a kinda-overview of the case, some brief details into the lives of the main players – with an extra emphasis on one of the FBI agents – and a decent overview of the history of the Mexican drug cartels.I think this book would have been improved had it just gone all out and framed the narrative as a thriller or procedural, strictly sticking to the point-of-view of the main FBI agent.Without a strict narrative focus as a thriller or procedural, it needed to present a ton of detail – or tie this episode into a detailed, broader historical or social context – in order to be something special. As written, the book only scratches the surface of many of the topics it brings up: cartels, money laundering, horse racing, civil asset forfeiture, life on the border, federal inter-agency squabbling, bureaucratic inefficiency. It provides highlights, but it never really goes deep into the weeds. For example, it airs some of frustrations of the FBI agent with the obstacles presented by other agencies who want the investigation to have a different focus, but it never provides any justification or explanation for why the FBI case should have been the priority.Basically, this book is just another non-fiction book written like a whole bunch of other non-fiction books: take a generally unusual or interesting “anecdote” of a story (drug cartels were buying American race horses, of all the things! and the FBI agent investigating it is from Tennessee! That’s far from Mexico!), splash some office conflict/gossip that is presumably generally favorable to the author’s sources (can you believe the DEA wanted to use the FBI’s source for something else!?), throw in some titillating details (kidnapping!), then call it a day and wait for a movie deal.Ultimately, though, it’s a readable story (that could be made into a better movie) that wouldn’t be a bad read on an airplane or to kill a few hours. It’s not baaaad….it’s just not good.

The book is a gripping tale of José Treviño, a bricklayer who became a millionaire overnight laundering money for his infamous brothers, the heads of the Zeta cartel. In only a few years, the brothers managed to subvert the American quarter horse industry to their malignant ends. Del Bosque describes in clear-eyed prose the terrifying barbarism of the Mexican drug war and the villains who perpetrate it. She matches that tale with a fascinating police procedural on the painstaking effort required to unravel the money laundering operation. In Bloodlines, the humans behind the headlines come to life.A decade ago, as editor of the Texas Observer, I hired Melissa del Bosque as an investigative reporter. Along with a deep understanding of the borderland between the U.S. and Mexico, she brought an incredible combination of reportorial toughness and empathy. Those qualities are very much on display in Bloodlines.For anyone who wants to understand the carnage south of the border and the challenges of confronting it, this is a must-read.Jake BernsteinJournalist, Author

Gripping telling of the money laundering side of the investigation. Very thorough research into the practices by which the last letter funded their savagery.

The true story of Scott Lawson, a young country boy from Tennessee and a rookie FBI agent in Laredo, Texas when he led a three-year-long effort to take down the Zeta Mexican drug cartel kingpins as they infiltrated the American quarter horse industry in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and California. Author Melissa Del Bosque takes the reader on a roller coaster ride with unimaginable twists and turns through the Mexican drug cartel underworld, the quarter horse racing industry, and the US criminal justice system. An investigative journalist, Del Bosque dedicates her book to the Mexican journalists killed in their line of duty and to those journalists who now live in exile or who seek asylum in the United States.

Kept you on the edge on your set start to finish. Unbelievable how merciless the cartel leaders could be ( in-human). The length and depths the Investigators went to over three years was remarkable

Incredible insight into how organised Mexican cartels encroach into all aspects of society; including quarter horse racing.Found extremely readable.

The story showed the detailed investigative work the FBI collects to collaborate a case. It also showed the clever workings of the minds of a criminal family bent on beating the odds in the horse racing industry. Well worth the read

Great read if you are into quarter horse racing in the states....

Boring and poorly written