This riveting account reveals the secret corners of our supposedly flat world: black markets where governments are never seen but still spend outrageous amounts of money. Journalist Matt Potter tells the story of Yuri and his crew, a gang of Russian military men who, after the collapse of the Soviet Union found themselves without work or prospects. So they bought a decommissioned Soviet plane-at liquidation prices, straight from the Russian government-and started a shipping business. It wasn’t long before Yuri, and many pilots like him, found themselves an unlikely (and ethically dubious) hub of global trading. Men like these are paid by the U.S., the Taliban, and blue-chip multinational companies to bring supplies- some legal, some not-across dangerous borders.

Under the Radar and on the Black Market with the World’s Most Dangerous Smugglers

I picked up this book thinking its going to be a crazy story about a bunch of commands gone bad, but turns out to be a book about the grey market of private aviation, they are neither bad guys nor good guys, just depends on the contract that they have at hand. It is one very interesting book as to how the Soviet Military broke down since they ran out of money and the Air Force turned out into the most efficient and decentralized private aviation industry known to man, no one boss, no accountability, with the powers and resources of the cold war at their hands. Where paperwork can be altered, these guys would be based and they would go, they go where they are needed with their Antonovs and Ilyushins. The book is a very interesting read, a view into the Russian mind set and to my surprise Sharjah was a major hub for Drug Smuggling, Money Laundering and more, didn’t know it was like that for so long but it was the gateway into the Middle East and Europe from Asia and Russia. Matt Potter did a fantastic job of going into the depth of this story, but the book gets a bit repetitive, it could have been about 1/3 shorter then it was, then it would have been a perfect book, but it was a very interesting read and an eye opener.

Link: Amazon
Rating: