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While the rest of us were safe in our homes, DEA Special Agent Mike Fredericks was busting dopers around the world and preventing illicit drugs from hitting the streets in the US.
Written from his extensive diaries and court documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, the real-life adventures of Mike Fredericks read like fiction-and will either scare the pants off you or assure you that daring agents like Fredericks are on the job. From Portland to Pakistan, Colombia to the Caribbean, Fredericks was working hard and playing harder, ripping and running, buying drugs undercover, driving fast cars, arresting felons and fugitives, busting redneck meth labs in remote Oregon sites, raiding clandestine cocaine labs in dense Colombian jungles, training with US Army special forces, investigating heroin traffickers in Pakistan, and working internationally to dismantle worldwide drug distribution organizations. |
Praise for Busting Drug Dealers
Firebird 2023 First Time Published 1st Place Winner and 2nd Place Memoir Category
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"Busting Drug Dealers: Diaries of a DEA Special Agent by Mike Fredericks offers a gripping firsthand account of the harrowing world of drug enforcement, providing readers with a front-row seat to the adrenaline-fueled adventures of a seasoned DEA agent... Fredericks doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of his profession, addressing themes of terrorism, drug trafficking, and the toll it takes on families and marriages. His candid storytelling offers a sobering look at the human cost of the War on Drugs while also celebrating the courage of those who risk their lives to combat it. Despite the gritty subject matter, Fredericks infuses his memoir with moments of humor and humanity, showcasing the camaraderie among law enforcement officers."
"An intense and thrilling look into the Drug Wars from a frontline participant... A witness to the good, bad, and ugly of the drug wars, Fredericks devotion to his job is unquestioned and clear in his writing. He doesn’t avert recalling drawbacks in the work or his family life. Fredericks’ frank depiction of his imperfections during a storied career makes this a genuine memoir while also being a notable true crime entry."
Five Star Reedsy Review, A "Must Read"
Read the full review here
Read the full review here
Mike in Spokane, WA in 1978
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“Mike Fredericks is the real deal. Every successful career cop at one time or another plays with the notion that his or her investigative exploits are worthy of a book, TV series, or Hollywood movie. A lucky few will ever make it. That said, Mike Fredericks’s account of his DEA journey delivers. He walks you through his investigations and experiences individually with enough procedural detail to get the reader wrapped up in the often complicated processes involved in building a winnable federal case. Hollywood will love this book.
“Mike’s journey takes the reader with him on his assignments both in the US and abroad (often against a backdrop of corruption), involving undercover work, rural meth labs, magic mushrooms, cocaine labs in the Colombia jungle manned by insurgent guerrillas, and heroin smuggling out of Pakistan. The survival skills he acquired in those situations prepared him for the worst day of his life, when a routine family ferry ride in the Mediterranean erupted into life and death survival. “If you like Law & Order, you’ll love this book, it’s Law & Order international and it’s true.” Bob Nieves
DEA Chief of International Operations (ret.) |
“Ground truth from the foggy, bloody, occasionally funny front lines. Busting Drug Dealers, by Mike Fredericks, who spent twenty-seven years as a federal agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, is a full-immersion journey into shady places most of us don’t think we want to see, not in real life, not even on cable news. If you want to know what narcotics investigators do, and especially if you’re thinking of becoming one, it’s a must-read—a wild ride, from dismantling meth labs in the American West to ducking guerrillas in the Colombian jungle to evading assassins in Pakistan. Even a family vacation aboard a Greek cruise ship turned to chaos when Middle Eastern terrorists opened fire on the passengers. Fredericks, his wife, and their eight-year-old son escaped by a hair.
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Elaine Shannon
Veteran correspondent for Time and Newsweek and author of four books, among them, Desperados and Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and his Empire. |
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“Mike takes you into the world of both domestic and international drug trafficking investigations that can only be told from the inside by someone who’s walked the walk. Mike takes you through the volatile and unpredictable maze in working in Third World countries and walking that fine line with confidential informants, who’ll play both ends for the biggest payday. A good read for those who want to understand the art of undercover and conducting and investigating international conspiracy cases.”
Richard Fiano
DEA Chief of Operations (ret.) “Mike Fredericks had an outstanding career as a DEA Special Agent. He excelled at his early domestic assignments in the Northwest of the United States and became a respected successful Senior Special Agent in the international drug law enforcement arena in the highly consequential narcotrafficking countries of Colombia and Pakistan during the 1980s. His mantra might have been ‘can do, will do’ because he was certainly a ‘could do, would do’ kind of agent. There is no greater accolade that a DEA Special Agent can receive. This book is an engrossing read that provides enlightenment into the world of narcotrafficking.
Harold “Doug” Wankel
DEA Chief of Operations (ret.), Chief of Intelligence, and FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Organized Crime and Drugs |
FARC Seizure @ Tranquilandia, 1984
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“Mike Fredericks’s riveting true stories give us a richly detailed window into his heroic work as a DEA Special Agent dedicated to halting the narcotics flow into our nation. Special Agent Fredericks’s work is difficult and dangerous with personal costs that we Americans rarely appreciate. We follow Fredericks as he weaves stories of working with local police as well as dedicated foreign counterparts with deaths of colleagues, amoral informants, and corrupt as well as honest international counternarcotics counterparts.
“I was privileged to serve with Mike in our embassy in New Delhi and can attest to his courage, integrity, and wit. Mike presents a chilling version of things to come unless the international community can come together to end the scourge of narcotics.”
“I was privileged to serve with Mike in our embassy in New Delhi and can attest to his courage, integrity, and wit. Mike presents a chilling version of things to come unless the international community can come together to end the scourge of narcotics.”
US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr.
Mike in LaLoma, 1984
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“Mike’s memoir realistically presents the life and death situations and challenges faced by many law enforcement personnel, both domestic and international, and helps the reader imagine the emotions and feelings this Special Agent was experiencing during different predicaments. With the details of Mike’s lifelong experiences as a federal agent, this book is so packed with the key fundamentals and proper procedures for conducting different types of investigations, developing and assembling evidence, documentation of events, handling informants, preparing testimony, and numerous tips and clues and investigative techniques, that it could well be a textbook in any reputable criminal justice curriculum.
Terrance W. Woodworth
Former Deputy Director, DEA Office of Diversion Control (ret.) Partner, The Drug and Chemical Advisory Group, LLC (Controlled Substance Consulting) |
“This great DEA agent worked around the world to ensure that the world drug leaders were sought and arrested for exporting their deadly drugs to the United States. Mike describes how DEA agents assigned to foreign posts of duty worked with host country law enforcement narcotics units to destroy these organizations. Mike was admired by his agent family and organization for his work and courage throughout his career. This story is not fiction. It is real.
Pierre A. Charette
DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ret.)
Author of One Hell of a Ride 1 & 2
DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ret.)
Author of One Hell of a Ride 1 & 2
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“Mike’s book provides a tour inside the world of international drug trafficking, the politics of corruption, and the high stakes and often dangerous efforts made by good people to make a difference. The story shows that risking everything for a greater good is rewarding and special. Reading this book should cause the reader to pause and thank the protectors out there for the lives they save.
Joe Dombroski
Former Baltimore police detective DEA Supervisory Special Agent (ret.) “True crime aficionados will love Mike Fredericks’s exhilarating stories of his DEA career. Vividly detailed with plenty of dialogue, Mike’s real-life work reads like a script from the TV crime drama Narcos! From Pakistan to Colombia, Greece to the United States, his thrilling career provides a riveting read. You will not put this book down!
Mark Langan
Narcotics sergeant and award-winning author of Busting Bad Guys and More Busting Bad Guys |
Pakistan’s NW Frontier Province en route to the Khyber Pass
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“DEA: Dynamic. Electrifying. Authentic! This read takes you to the early stages of the War on Drugs. You are riding shotgun with the author as he details events of his many battles in this war, that still haunts us to this day.”
Brian Bogdanoff
Decorated narcotics and homicide detective
Author of the Amazon Best Seller and Book of the Year Three Bodies Burning: The Anatomy of an Investigation into Murder, Money, and Mexican Marijuana
Decorated narcotics and homicide detective
Author of the Amazon Best Seller and Book of the Year Three Bodies Burning: The Anatomy of an Investigation into Murder, Money, and Mexican Marijuana
“When working together in Pakistan, I referred to Mike Fredericks as the ‘James Michener’ of DEA because his description of events in DEA investigative reporting left no question unanswered. Busting Drug Dealers provides the same descriptive insights of Mike’s unrelenting pursuit of international drug traffickers and dedication to the career that he so loved.”
Larry Sproat
DEA Supervisory Special Agent (ret.)
Former Atlanta Police Officer and Detective
DEA Supervisory Special Agent (ret.)
Former Atlanta Police Officer and Detective
