Contrabando: Confessions of a Drug-Smuggling Texas Cowboy – The Rebel's Memoir from the Other Side of the War on Drugs in Big Bend

Contrabando: Confessions of a Drug-Smuggling Texas Cowboy – The Rebel's Memoir from the Other Side of the War on Drugs in Big Bend

Don Henry Ford, Jr., is an unapologetic outlaw. For seven years he made his living smuggling marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border in the Big Bend region of Texas. His business partners were some of the era's biggest narcotraficantes like Pablo Acosta and Amado Carrillo Fuentes. After Ford was arrested and imprisoned, he escaped and lived for a year in rural Mexico, raising a bumper crop of weed and hiding out from the federales , before his recapture and return to the penitentiary. Contrabando is the extraordinary, unabashed memoir of a rebel -- a warrior on the other side of the War on Drugs who lived to tell the tale. But more than a riveting and remarkable true crime confession, Contrabando is an ode to the beauty of the dry, dusty West Texas plains and the lonely hills of Mexico -- and a tribute to Ford's friends, protectors, and fellow outlaws who stood by him during the dangerous smuggling years. “[Ford is] a wonderful writer, and he carries some secrets in his back pocket some people wish he wouldn’t bring out. Bring it, Mr. Ford.” - Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Devil’s Highway “Don Henry Ford, Jr. shows us first-hand what it was like smuggling dope across the Rio Grande. Lucky he’s not dead.” - Kinky Friedman Don Henry Ford, Jr., is an unapologetic outlaw. For seven years he made his living smuggling marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border in the Big Bend region of Texas. His business partners were some of the era's biggest narcotraficantes like Pablo Acosta and Amado Carrillo Fuentes. After Ford was arrested and imprisoned, he escaped and lived for a year in rural Mexico, raising a bumper crop of weed and hiding out from the federales , before his recapture and return to the penitentiary. Contrabando is the extraordinary, unabashed memoir of a rebel -- a warrior on the other side of the War on Drugs who lived to tell the tale. But more than a riveting and remarkable true crime confession, Contrabando is an ode to the beauty of the dry, dusty West Texas plains and the lonely hills of Mexico -- and a tribute to Ford's friends, protectors, and fellow outlaws who stood by him during the dangerous smuggling years. p>Don Henry Ford, Jr., served five years in a maximum security federal penitentiary. He now lives with his wife, Leah, in Seguin, Texas, farming, raising racehorses, and writing.