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Marching Powder
The true story of an English drug-smuggler, a notorious Bolivian prison and enough cocaine to cover the Andes ..."A unique window on a bizarre and corrupt world" Publishers Weekly"Travel literature of a very special and captivating kind" BooklistRusty Young, a twenty-something Australian law graduate, was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, an English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia's notorious San Pedro prison. When Rusty met Thomas, they formed a surprising yet instant friendship and then became partners in an attempt to record Thomas's experiences in the jail. The result is one of the most compelling prison stories of all time.Marching Powder is a shocking, sometimes darkly comic account of life in San Pedro. In this bizarre prison, inmates are expected to buy their cells from real estate agents. Others run shops and restaurants, and women and children live with imprisoned family members. Violence and crime are never far away, and the jail contains some of Bolivia's busiest cocaine laboratories. In San Pedro, cocaine makes life bearable - even the prison cat is addicted to crack.Yet amid, the corruption, brutality and the daily struggle for survival, Marching Powder is also the tale of an unlikely friendship, forged in the oddest of circumstances, between a drug smuggler and a lawyer. It is the story of one of the strangest places on earth, where horror is leavened by humour and where cruelty lives side by side with compassion.
468 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2003
1048 people are currently reading
25062 people want to read
About the author
Rusty Young
4 books303 followersRusty Young (born 1975) is the Australian-born author of the international bestseller Marching Powder, the true story of an English drug smuggler in Bolivia’s notorious San Pedro Prison and the bestselling novel, Colombiano, a fact-meets-fiction revenge thriller about a Colombian boy who sets out to avenge his father’s death.
Rusty grew up in Sydney, and studied Finance and Law at the University of New South Wales. He was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia's famous San Pedro Prison. Curious about the reason behind McFadden's huge popularity, the law graduate went to La Paz and joined one of Thomas's illegal tours. They formed an instant friendship and then became partners in an attempt to record Thomas's experiences in the jail.
Rusty bribed the guards to allow him to stay and for the next three months he lived inside the prison, sharing a cell with Thomas. After securing Thomas's release, Rusty lived in Colombia where he taught the English language and wrote Thomas's story. The memoir, Marching Powder, was released in 2003 and was an international bestseller.
Following the success of Marching Powder, Rusty was recruited as a Program Director of the US government's Anti-Kidnapping Program in Colombia. He was part of a team that trained local police, military and SWAT teams in kidnapping response and hostage rescue. At the time, Colombia had an average of eight kidnappings a day. It was a role fraught with danger and Rusty lived part-time on a military base, drove a Level III armoured vehicle, communicated with colleagues via encrypted radio and changed houses in Bogotá a dozen times. He kept this work completely secret.
Through police and army contacts, Rusty was able to interview special forces soldiers, including snipers and undercover intelligence agents, about their work. He also interviewed captured child soldiers from the two main terrorist organisations – FARC and Autodefensas. The former soldiers, some as young at twelve when they joined, described in great detail their reasons for enlisting, their hatred of the enemy, their gruelling military training, their political indoctrination and their horrific experiences in battle. Once Rusty had earned their trust, they also opened up to him about gruesome tortures they were forced to witness or participate in.
These interviews, along with Rusty’s extensive in-the-field knowledge about cocaine trafficking, formed the factual setting and background for his novel Colombiano, a fact-meets-fiction revenge thriller.
Colombiano was published in Australia in August 2017 and was the highest-selling Australian fiction title that month. It will be released worldwide in 2018.
In 2011, Rusty co-founded the Colombian Children’s Foundation of Australia, which helps rehabilitate and resocialise former child soldiers. Currently, his house in Bogotá is the charity’s headquarters. Ten percent of his royalties of Colombiano will go to the foundation, which has almost 200 former child soldiers under care.
Rusty also fronts the documentary Wildlands (2017) in which he interviews notorious characters formerly involved in the cocaine trade, including George Jung – famously played by Johnny Depp in the movie Blow – and, more terrifyingly, John Velasquez or “Popeye”, Pablo Escobar’s right-hand man and one of the deadliest hitmen in cartel history.
Rusty grew up in Sydney, and studied Finance and Law at the University of New South Wales. He was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia's famous San Pedro Prison. Curious about the reason behind McFadden's huge popularity, the law graduate went to La Paz and joined one of Thomas's illegal tours. They formed an instant friendship and then became partners in an attempt to record Thomas's experiences in the jail.
Rusty bribed the guards to allow him to stay and for the next three months he lived inside the prison, sharing a cell with Thomas. After securing Thomas's release, Rusty lived in Colombia where he taught the English language and wrote Thomas's story. The memoir, Marching Powder, was released in 2003 and was an international bestseller.
Following the success of Marching Powder, Rusty was recruited as a Program Director of the US government's Anti-Kidnapping Program in Colombia. He was part of a team that trained local police, military and SWAT teams in kidnapping response and hostage rescue. At the time, Colombia had an average of eight kidnappings a day. It was a role fraught with danger and Rusty lived part-time on a military base, drove a Level III armoured vehicle, communicated with colleagues via encrypted radio and changed houses in Bogotá a dozen times. He kept this work completely secret.
Through police and army contacts, Rusty was able to interview special forces soldiers, including snipers and undercover intelligence agents, about their work. He also interviewed captured child soldiers from the two main terrorist organisations – FARC and Autodefensas. The former soldiers, some as young at twelve when they joined, described in great detail their reasons for enlisting, their hatred of the enemy, their gruelling military training, their political indoctrination and their horrific experiences in battle. Once Rusty had earned their trust, they also opened up to him about gruesome tortures they were forced to witness or participate in.
These interviews, along with Rusty’s extensive in-the-field knowledge about cocaine trafficking, formed the factual setting and background for his novel Colombiano, a fact-meets-fiction revenge thriller.
Colombiano was published in Australia in August 2017 and was the highest-selling Australian fiction title that month. It will be released worldwide in 2018.
In 2011, Rusty co-founded the Colombian Children’s Foundation of Australia, which helps rehabilitate and resocialise former child soldiers. Currently, his house in Bogotá is the charity’s headquarters. Ten percent of his royalties of Colombiano will go to the foundation, which has almost 200 former child soldiers under care.
Rusty also fronts the documentary Wildlands (2017) in which he interviews notorious characters formerly involved in the cocaine trade, including George Jung – famously played by Johnny Depp in the movie Blow – and, more terrifyingly, John Velasquez or “Popeye”, Pablo Escobar’s right-hand man and one of the deadliest hitmen in cartel history.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,394 reviews
July 3, 2023
Thomas McFadden was a drug dealer in South America. He did it for the kicks and the money, he didn't do drugs himself. He relied on paying off a network of thoroughly corrupt officials and never gave thought to one of them might sell him out. Which they did.
Newly convicted he arrived at the prison to be told he needed to rent or buy a cell, and if he had the money, he could have a very nice cell with all mod cons (for a prison) otherwise, it was the cold flags outside. The prisoners run the prison. They are in charge of job and food distribution, there are makeshift cafes, food booths and little shops. Their families are allowed to spend time, including nights with them. It is a brutal place full of violent men administering justice including public executions. The prison staff just seem to handle the interface between the prison and the outside world. Mostly they are extremely corrupt, so anything is available to a prisoner with money.
Eventually Thomas gets his act together and has a very nice set up. So nice he has a kind of bed and breakfast going, and Lonely Planet recommends Thomas' cell as an unmissable place to stay when in Bolivia. Really. That's a very good illustration of truth being stranger than fiction.
Thomas doesn't finish his sentence there though. He gets sent to a much more brutal and soul-destroying prison where has no freedom. That obviously taught him a lesson as he's a chicken farmer in Kenya now, and keeps his head well below the paraphet.
Read it, just brilliant, just amazing.
Read Nov/Dec 2014. Reviewed 30 Nov 2017
Newly convicted he arrived at the prison to be told he needed to rent or buy a cell, and if he had the money, he could have a very nice cell with all mod cons (for a prison) otherwise, it was the cold flags outside. The prisoners run the prison. They are in charge of job and food distribution, there are makeshift cafes, food booths and little shops. Their families are allowed to spend time, including nights with them. It is a brutal place full of violent men administering justice including public executions. The prison staff just seem to handle the interface between the prison and the outside world. Mostly they are extremely corrupt, so anything is available to a prisoner with money.
Eventually Thomas gets his act together and has a very nice set up. So nice he has a kind of bed and breakfast going, and Lonely Planet recommends Thomas' cell as an unmissable place to stay when in Bolivia. Really. That's a very good illustration of truth being stranger than fiction.
Thomas doesn't finish his sentence there though. He gets sent to a much more brutal and soul-destroying prison where has no freedom. That obviously taught him a lesson as he's a chicken farmer in Kenya now, and keeps his head well below the paraphet.
Read it, just brilliant, just amazing.
Read Nov/Dec 2014. Reviewed 30 Nov 2017
October 7, 2013
This book made me angry because it was so poorly written - such an interesting story made into something so flat and annoying. The narrator was not trustworthy - in high school lit, we would have called him an "unreliable narrator." One of the faults of the first-person narrative structure - the narrator had no independent authority and the author didn't have the skill to bolster his narrator's credibility (He would say, "I did this bad thing, but I'm not a bad guy" and my reaction would be "I don't know about that bucko, you sound like a smarmy drug dealer, with few morals; the fact that you got caught and sent to a really crappy prison doesn't make you a good person or worthy of sympathy."
Also, there was no story arch. The chapters were either stand alone vignettes ("And so, in 1000 words, that's how I started a store") that were disconnected from any sort of greater structure, or they ended with the most obvious lead ins ever ("And so ends the story of my interactions with that person. Or so I thought. Little did I know that they were just beginning."). Its okay once, but every chapter in the second half of the book ended that way. I was really disappointed because I bought this book while traveling in South America and I was very interested in the subject matter. But in the end, I was so annoyed with the book that I rushed to finish just so I would be done with it.
Also, am I the only one who is not shocked at what was going on? Do people not read the newspaper? Crazy stuff happens all over the world. Also, when I'm told by the narrator over and over that people don't believe what happens in the prison and that the prisononers have to pay for their own cells, after a while, I get it. People have to buy their own cells - I'll not be shocked.
Also, there was no story arch. The chapters were either stand alone vignettes ("And so, in 1000 words, that's how I started a store") that were disconnected from any sort of greater structure, or they ended with the most obvious lead ins ever ("And so ends the story of my interactions with that person. Or so I thought. Little did I know that they were just beginning."). Its okay once, but every chapter in the second half of the book ended that way. I was really disappointed because I bought this book while traveling in South America and I was very interested in the subject matter. But in the end, I was so annoyed with the book that I rushed to finish just so I would be done with it.
Also, am I the only one who is not shocked at what was going on? Do people not read the newspaper? Crazy stuff happens all over the world. Also, when I'm told by the narrator over and over that people don't believe what happens in the prison and that the prisononers have to pay for their own cells, after a while, I get it. People have to buy their own cells - I'll not be shocked.
January 11, 2016
While poorly written at times, this book was an incredible story about an unbelievable subject. At one point I thought the overall narrative was over (something that happens half way through a lot of non-fiction books) but that is when the book gets darker. That is what makes this book worth all of its pages. This book has made me dream of cocaine ingestion (neither positive or negative) and that is the view that is portrayed. Jailhouse tourism may never take off worldwide, but this is an excellent story of how prison tours began somewhere and at times the poor spelling seemed to work for the story (and maybe that is just how Australians spell).
October 22, 2013
Having lived in Bolivia for the first twenty years of my life, where the goings-on inside San Pedro are public knowledge, I can vouch for the veracity of the story exposed by Young / McFadden, although it reads as stranger than fiction. The bizarre, sometimes brutal, sometimes comic revelations of Marching Powder, are not as astonishing to me as they might be to someone unfamiliar with “the way things are in South America”, but even to my acquainted eye the book still made for interesting reading.
My only objection is that McFadden often makes outrageous statements referring not only to San Pedro prisoners, but Bolivians in general. Despite the fact that he only spent a few days in Bolivia before being incarcerated, McFadden seems to believe that San Pedro is a microcosm of Bolivian Society. Take, for example: “hardly anyone in Bolivia admits to taking drugs, but… how could you not take cocaine in a country where a gram is cheaper than a bear?”
Not happy with saying that all Bolivians are junkies, McFadden goes on to say that they are all stupid, “because there’s not much oxygen up here… the Bolivian brains don’t develop properly”.
Thankfully, this Bolivian-born Australian, whose brain developed fully despite its early exposure to altitude, is aware that those are not Rusty Young’s conclusions but Thomas McFadden’s. It is obvious that his memories and reasoning are distorted by his own addiction to cocaine and sleeping pills, not to mention his lack of education. Alas, his views might contribute to reinforce existing misconceptions about an entire country, and its people.
While thousands of struggling Bolivians make their livelihood in the controversial coca leaf plantations, the majority of them have never seen as much as a gram of the white powder that has made their country infamous.
I have no doubt that Rusty Young would have been able to offer a much more balanced, informed and humane insight into this subject had he used his own voice and perspective for the narrative. This is demonstrated by the documentary on San Pedro Jail that he produced for ABC’s Foreign Correspondent, which was about the jail, and not about Thomas McFadden.
My only objection is that McFadden often makes outrageous statements referring not only to San Pedro prisoners, but Bolivians in general. Despite the fact that he only spent a few days in Bolivia before being incarcerated, McFadden seems to believe that San Pedro is a microcosm of Bolivian Society. Take, for example: “hardly anyone in Bolivia admits to taking drugs, but… how could you not take cocaine in a country where a gram is cheaper than a bear?”
Not happy with saying that all Bolivians are junkies, McFadden goes on to say that they are all stupid, “because there’s not much oxygen up here… the Bolivian brains don’t develop properly”.
Thankfully, this Bolivian-born Australian, whose brain developed fully despite its early exposure to altitude, is aware that those are not Rusty Young’s conclusions but Thomas McFadden’s. It is obvious that his memories and reasoning are distorted by his own addiction to cocaine and sleeping pills, not to mention his lack of education. Alas, his views might contribute to reinforce existing misconceptions about an entire country, and its people.
While thousands of struggling Bolivians make their livelihood in the controversial coca leaf plantations, the majority of them have never seen as much as a gram of the white powder that has made their country infamous.
I have no doubt that Rusty Young would have been able to offer a much more balanced, informed and humane insight into this subject had he used his own voice and perspective for the narrative. This is demonstrated by the documentary on San Pedro Jail that he produced for ABC’s Foreign Correspondent, which was about the jail, and not about Thomas McFadden.
April 4, 2017
Drug runner Thomas McFadden was the epitome of a likeable rogue who lead a charmed life. But his luck ran out in Bolivia. The most unintentionally funny part of the book was Thomas's outrage that the corrupt Bolivian official he bribed betrayed him.
Arrested and kept in a holding cell for thirteen days, Thomas was robbed by his arresting officers which left him no money to buy food. Frozen and starving Thomas begged to be moved to a prison. The officers found this desire to be moved to prison hysterically funny. Thomas soon found out why, starting with being transported by taxi to San Pedro prison - & being expected to pay.
Thomas survived in San Pedro by his charm & business acumen. A terrifying place made bearable by copious amounts of drugs.
Written in the first person this is Thomas's story. So was Rusty merely an editor or recorder? If the writer of the story, some extra insights would have been nice.
Both men still appear to be close friends so obviously Thomas is happy for Young to claim sole credit for writing this.
Fascinating.
Arrested and kept in a holding cell for thirteen days, Thomas was robbed by his arresting officers which left him no money to buy food. Frozen and starving Thomas begged to be moved to a prison. The officers found this desire to be moved to prison hysterically funny. Thomas soon found out why, starting with being transported by taxi to San Pedro prison - & being expected to pay.
Thomas survived in San Pedro by his charm & business acumen. A terrifying place made bearable by copious amounts of drugs.
Written in the first person this is Thomas's story. So was Rusty merely an editor or recorder? If the writer of the story, some extra insights would have been nice.
Both men still appear to be close friends so obviously Thomas is happy for Young to claim sole credit for writing this.
Fascinating.
March 30, 2019
When Thomas McFadden made a detour through Bolivia to get five kilos of cocaine through to Europe, justice finally caught up with him. Smuggling drugs around the world since the tender age of 15, McFadden has been successful in destroying hundreds of lives around the world before he even landed in Bolivia. As it turns out, you can't trust criminals and he found himself captured even though he had paid off his bribes. You can tell I don't like the man, can't you?
The book starts off with McFadden at the La Paz airport, waiting to smuggle drugs through the customs when he gets arrested. With this, his saga starts. He is tortured by the drug police, but the interesting part of the story comes when he is actually shifted to the San Pedro prison. He finds that inmates have to pay for everything there, including the taxi fare to reach there and an entry fee to have the honour of going to prison. I won't elaborate much on this since McFadden talks in detail about it.
Life in San Pedro is like being in a slum area. It has its own economy and its own class system. This leaves prisoners not much better off than on the outside. With poverty-stricken prisoners most of whom end up in prison in the first place due to poverty being expected to finance themselves and their families completely, it is no surprise that crime thrives in the prison even more than it does on the outside. McFadden, however, was not that poor and he was able to get by with his prison tours to foreigners.
The focus of the book is on McFadden's prison tours, a novelty that even Lonely Planet recommends! He would bring in tourists and they would pay an official entry fee to enter. To stay longer or spend the night, they would then pay a bribe. For most foreigners, this was the experience of a lifetime. Many ended up doing cocaine in prison, which McFadden supplied. These tourists were what kept his spirits up during his time in San Pedro and some of them help him out. He also falls in love during this time.
Drugs play a huge role in this narrative. San Pedro produces the best cocaine in all of Bolivia, and it comes dirt cheap. Unable to take the squalid life inside, many inmates turn to drugs - including our hero. After ruining the lives of many, McFadden now ruins his own by turning to cocaine. I am not sure how ubiquitous drugs are in the prison system and in Bolivia in general, but McFadden makes it sound as if everyone there took cocaine as you and I would take water. Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that he was majorly into drugs and drug culture even if he never actually consumed it before his stint in prison. McFadden also believes that everyone in Bolivia consumes cocaine, which is factually incorrect.
The author, Rusty Young, does not show up at all until the last few pages. The book itself is written as if McFadden is writing an autobiography, and Young's voice is absent. This means that the reader gets a full dose of "Yea for drugs!" which can put off many, including me. McFadden has no regrets about smuggling poison around and he doesn't seem to be able to understand that he has done something WRONG. He talks about his criminal career as if it were a game. But really, a decent person wanting those kind of exciting adventures would try bungee jumping or white water rafting, not drug smuggling.
The novelty of the book did work on me and I enjoyed reading it. I was able to put aside the fact that McFadden was a douchebag. The kind of corruption and violence rampant within the prison was horrifying. Poverty in Bolivia sounds pretty bad and the way that the prisoners hated Americans brings out how American interference in the area botched up farmers' lives in the country. The American war on drugs meant that they try to eliminate coca production in the country, which ultimately led to a lot of unemployment and poverty, increasing prison populations.
The book is well worth a read if only to know and understand something that we have never come across before. But if you are someone who has to absolutely like a protagonist in order to love the book, better skip it. There is no getting around the fact that McFadden was a drug smuggler, and he did it for the thrills, and he never regretted his career and the lives he destroyed. The only consolation is that he claims he no longer smuggles drugs. But he wouldn't tell us if he were doing that, would he?
The book starts off with McFadden at the La Paz airport, waiting to smuggle drugs through the customs when he gets arrested. With this, his saga starts. He is tortured by the drug police, but the interesting part of the story comes when he is actually shifted to the San Pedro prison. He finds that inmates have to pay for everything there, including the taxi fare to reach there and an entry fee to have the honour of going to prison. I won't elaborate much on this since McFadden talks in detail about it.
Life in San Pedro is like being in a slum area. It has its own economy and its own class system. This leaves prisoners not much better off than on the outside. With poverty-stricken prisoners most of whom end up in prison in the first place due to poverty being expected to finance themselves and their families completely, it is no surprise that crime thrives in the prison even more than it does on the outside. McFadden, however, was not that poor and he was able to get by with his prison tours to foreigners.
The focus of the book is on McFadden's prison tours, a novelty that even Lonely Planet recommends! He would bring in tourists and they would pay an official entry fee to enter. To stay longer or spend the night, they would then pay a bribe. For most foreigners, this was the experience of a lifetime. Many ended up doing cocaine in prison, which McFadden supplied. These tourists were what kept his spirits up during his time in San Pedro and some of them help him out. He also falls in love during this time.
Drugs play a huge role in this narrative. San Pedro produces the best cocaine in all of Bolivia, and it comes dirt cheap. Unable to take the squalid life inside, many inmates turn to drugs - including our hero. After ruining the lives of many, McFadden now ruins his own by turning to cocaine. I am not sure how ubiquitous drugs are in the prison system and in Bolivia in general, but McFadden makes it sound as if everyone there took cocaine as you and I would take water. Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that he was majorly into drugs and drug culture even if he never actually consumed it before his stint in prison. McFadden also believes that everyone in Bolivia consumes cocaine, which is factually incorrect.
The author, Rusty Young, does not show up at all until the last few pages. The book itself is written as if McFadden is writing an autobiography, and Young's voice is absent. This means that the reader gets a full dose of "Yea for drugs!" which can put off many, including me. McFadden has no regrets about smuggling poison around and he doesn't seem to be able to understand that he has done something WRONG. He talks about his criminal career as if it were a game. But really, a decent person wanting those kind of exciting adventures would try bungee jumping or white water rafting, not drug smuggling.
The novelty of the book did work on me and I enjoyed reading it. I was able to put aside the fact that McFadden was a douchebag. The kind of corruption and violence rampant within the prison was horrifying. Poverty in Bolivia sounds pretty bad and the way that the prisoners hated Americans brings out how American interference in the area botched up farmers' lives in the country. The American war on drugs meant that they try to eliminate coca production in the country, which ultimately led to a lot of unemployment and poverty, increasing prison populations.
The book is well worth a read if only to know and understand something that we have never come across before. But if you are someone who has to absolutely like a protagonist in order to love the book, better skip it. There is no getting around the fact that McFadden was a drug smuggler, and he did it for the thrills, and he never regretted his career and the lives he destroyed. The only consolation is that he claims he no longer smuggles drugs. But he wouldn't tell us if he were doing that, would he?
April 26, 2012
Ghost writer wanted!
I love a good ripping yarn - tales of adventurous stupidity, derring do and the right mix of good and bad luck. Throw in a good dose of local colour and corruption, and away you go! But not this time...
I can't believe how dull this book turned out to be. Thomas bleats on and on ad infinitum about how crazy the jail is and how loco the situation is - prisoners taking out mortgages on cells, imbibing in the purest cocain in the world, restaurants run by prisoners and even a cat that is a crack addict. It's got all the ingredients for a heady gumbo of danger, corruption and "there but for the grace of God go I".
I felt like I was stuck at a dinner party next to the world's worst bore - he'd done everything, he was an expert at many things, but he'd been betrayed by people he trusted and blah blah blah. Everytime I'd start to put the book down, something vaguely interesting would happen and I'd perservere with another meandering story that disappeared into a cull-de-sac of nothingness.
By the end, I was seriously hoping that Thomas would end up as someone's bitch and they'd live happily ever after. It would make it easier to pass all that cocaine, I guess.
It did make me feel like a big, fat line of hoo-haa though. So, it was successful on a Pavlovian level.
I love a good ripping yarn - tales of adventurous stupidity, derring do and the right mix of good and bad luck. Throw in a good dose of local colour and corruption, and away you go! But not this time...
I can't believe how dull this book turned out to be. Thomas bleats on and on ad infinitum about how crazy the jail is and how loco the situation is - prisoners taking out mortgages on cells, imbibing in the purest cocain in the world, restaurants run by prisoners and even a cat that is a crack addict. It's got all the ingredients for a heady gumbo of danger, corruption and "there but for the grace of God go I".
I felt like I was stuck at a dinner party next to the world's worst bore - he'd done everything, he was an expert at many things, but he'd been betrayed by people he trusted and blah blah blah. Everytime I'd start to put the book down, something vaguely interesting would happen and I'd perservere with another meandering story that disappeared into a cull-de-sac of nothingness.
By the end, I was seriously hoping that Thomas would end up as someone's bitch and they'd live happily ever after. It would make it easier to pass all that cocaine, I guess.
It did make me feel like a big, fat line of hoo-haa though. So, it was successful on a Pavlovian level.
February 3, 2018
This real life account of an English drug dealer’s time inside San Pedro prison reads more like a thriller- even if only 10% is true, then it’s a pretty crazy place- from having to buy your own cell to manufacturing the best cocaine in Bolivia, from wholesale bribery to prison tour guides, this has it all. Easy to read, with very little of the violence you’d suppose from this kind of story, the book offers a glimpse into a very different world.
September 29, 2010
Everyone has one of those friends that drink too much and tell outrageous stories. Things like "The time I sat next to Hannah Montana in first class and she totally hit on me," "The time I got lost in the NYC subways and spent the night hanging out with a bunch of homeless guys," or "The time my boat almost sank but I was saved by a magical friendly dolphin." If you're lucky, your friend is entertaining and the ridiculous stories are actually fun to listen to. If you're unlucky... your "friend" is a jackass and you start making up your own stories, in order to get away from him.
Unfortunately Thomas McFadden strikes me as the second kind of friend. And unfortunately again, he managed to land himself a publishing deal.
While I have no doubt that prisons in Bolivia are filled with corruption, drugs and danger, I'm not willing to believe much of what McFadden tells me. He manages to be both a criminal mastermind and a Really Nice Guy; manages to meet the Woman Of His Dreams; manages to survive against all odds and become the Big Man on (Prison) Campus. And manages to make James Fray look like a credible story-teller.
So while the concept of the book is really fascinating, next time I'll find myself some nice nonfiction with an extensive bibliography in the back and leave this sordid memoir stuff to the Oprah/Jerry Springer crowd.
Unfortunately Thomas McFadden strikes me as the second kind of friend. And unfortunately again, he managed to land himself a publishing deal.
While I have no doubt that prisons in Bolivia are filled with corruption, drugs and danger, I'm not willing to believe much of what McFadden tells me. He manages to be both a criminal mastermind and a Really Nice Guy; manages to meet the Woman Of His Dreams; manages to survive against all odds and become the Big Man on (Prison) Campus. And manages to make James Fray look like a credible story-teller.
So while the concept of the book is really fascinating, next time I'll find myself some nice nonfiction with an extensive bibliography in the back and leave this sordid memoir stuff to the Oprah/Jerry Springer crowd.
November 29, 2012
I bought this book because my 'book lady' in Saigon recommended it to me and boy am I glad I did!! It is the amazingly true story of a drug trafficker from England who is caught and arrested in Bolivia where he is sent to San Pedro. When he arrives he is barely alive and it seems as though he has no chance of surviving. San Pedro is like no prison I have ever imagined could exist. For starters, prisoners have to buy their own cell. They have various sections to choose from to live in depending on how much money they have and in many ways in seems as thought they are living in a small community rather than jail. While his prison life glamorous at first, there are many times through the book when McFadden is reminded that he is indeed still in prison. This book is truly amazing and I would recommend it to everyone! It was very similar to the show Locked Up Abroad, only so much better!
July 4, 2010
This is just one of those amazing true stories. If a fiction author wrote it, you would think it was too unbelievable. I dare anyone to try to read this book and remain non-nonplussed by the fuctupedness in this story.
The story takes place in a Bolivian prison which is unlike any in the world, I imagine.
The protagonist is a drug smuggler; he was caught red-handed and is sent to a bizarre prison in which you pay to enter and pay to own a cell. The guards never really enter the prison grounds in general, and the prisoners are essentially allowed to live a "free" life within the prison walls. Some prisoners live with their wives and children, some turn their cells into tiendas and restaurants.
The shit is just wild. There is lots of coke and violence in the book, and much spectacle to it, which makes it entertaining.
It did lack a certain humility, or something akin to that. I mean I completely empathized with the main character's experience in the prison, though it was fascinating it was horrible. However, there is a lack of reform or an understanding of personal responsibility. Everyone makes mistakes, and in no way did the crime of smuggling coke fit the punishment the main character experienced, but perhaps it fit the stupidity of the crime. Lesson here: do not smuggle coke. The payoff is not worth the risk.
There is a touch of exploration on how the US war on drugas effects countries like Bolivia. That probably would have been interesting for the author to explore further.
At any rate it is a great read and an amazing story.
The story takes place in a Bolivian prison which is unlike any in the world, I imagine.
The protagonist is a drug smuggler; he was caught red-handed and is sent to a bizarre prison in which you pay to enter and pay to own a cell. The guards never really enter the prison grounds in general, and the prisoners are essentially allowed to live a "free" life within the prison walls. Some prisoners live with their wives and children, some turn their cells into tiendas and restaurants.
The shit is just wild. There is lots of coke and violence in the book, and much spectacle to it, which makes it entertaining.
It did lack a certain humility, or something akin to that. I mean I completely empathized with the main character's experience in the prison, though it was fascinating it was horrible. However, there is a lack of reform or an understanding of personal responsibility. Everyone makes mistakes, and in no way did the crime of smuggling coke fit the punishment the main character experienced, but perhaps it fit the stupidity of the crime. Lesson here: do not smuggle coke. The payoff is not worth the risk.
There is a touch of exploration on how the US war on drugas effects countries like Bolivia. That probably would have been interesting for the author to explore further.
At any rate it is a great read and an amazing story.
March 15, 2012
I first heard about this book a couple years ago and was interested straight away. A book set in the San Pedro prison in Bolivia. Full of corruption, crime and drugs.
What I got was full of corruption, crime and drugs. But also a fair bit of boredom and self-pity. No matter how nice he was he was still a convicted drug smuggler and dealer and I can't have any sympathy for him at all. If he'd been innocent I would have felt differently. But he was there because he deserved to be. So for me that really took away from the book. He was trying to sound innocent and garner sympathy but I just didn't buy it.
I wish there had been more on the actual culture in the prison, not just Thomas getting drunk and high. I wanted a hard hitting expose with the facts to back it up, not the whining of a convicted criminal.
This book could have been a lot better. It wasn't bad and once past the really whiny part about 1/3 the way through it moved quicker and was more interesting. But there was a lot left out that could have vastly improved it.
What I got was full of corruption, crime and drugs. But also a fair bit of boredom and self-pity. No matter how nice he was he was still a convicted drug smuggler and dealer and I can't have any sympathy for him at all. If he'd been innocent I would have felt differently. But he was there because he deserved to be. So for me that really took away from the book. He was trying to sound innocent and garner sympathy but I just didn't buy it.
I wish there had been more on the actual culture in the prison, not just Thomas getting drunk and high. I wanted a hard hitting expose with the facts to back it up, not the whining of a convicted criminal.
This book could have been a lot better. It wasn't bad and once past the really whiny part about 1/3 the way through it moved quicker and was more interesting. But there was a lot left out that could have vastly improved it.
December 24, 2021
One of my favourite non-fiction books. Highly recommend.
December 15, 2025
crazy story !!!!! but i think once i got over that part the writing was basic / bad and very repetitive. it did give me a lot of conversational prowess for a few days so that certainly is something (but so did the inner west xmas party so?)
July 13, 2025
My favourite book of the year so far?? I rarely (never) go for any kind of biographies, so I honestly didn't expect much before I started this one. The whole thing is chaotic, and even if 90% of it is completely untrue, this only makes the remaining 10% even crazier.
“San Pedro prison, apart from being a social microcosm, is also a microeconomy that operates under basic capitalist principles. In fact, it’s probably more efficient than the whole Bolivian national economy. And more democratic, too, but I’ll explain the prison election system to you another day.”
“San Pedro prison, apart from being a social microcosm, is also a microeconomy that operates under basic capitalist principles. In fact, it’s probably more efficient than the whole Bolivian national economy. And more democratic, too, but I’ll explain the prison election system to you another day.”
February 16, 2021
Excellent book about inside life in one of the most dangerous prisons in the world and what people do to survive it.
June 30, 2009
This memoir of a British drug dealer's nearly five years inside a Bolivian prison provides a unique window on a bizarre and corrupt world. McFadden, a young black man from Liverpool arrested for smuggling cocaine, finds himself forced to pay for his accommodations in La Paz's San Pedro Prison, the first of many oddities in a place where some inmates keep pets and rich criminals can sustain a lavish lifestyle. McFadden soon learns how to survive, and even thrive, in an atmosphere where crooked prison officials turn up at his private cell to snort lines of coke. By chance, he stumbles on an additional source of income when he begins giving tours of the prison to foreign tourists, a trade that leads to the mention in a Lonely Planet guidebook that attracts the attention of his co-author, Young, who was backpacking in South America at the time.
"Marching Powder" gives a great deal of insight into Bolivian culture and society, albeit through the lens of San Pedro prison. Although there is no follow-up to what happens to McFadden after he leaves Bolivia--and there is also no objective perspective to McFadden's story, I highly recommend "Marching Powder" to all; it's a very easy read for vacation or a long road trip.
"Marching Powder" gives a great deal of insight into Bolivian culture and society, albeit through the lens of San Pedro prison. Although there is no follow-up to what happens to McFadden after he leaves Bolivia--and there is also no objective perspective to McFadden's story, I highly recommend "Marching Powder" to all; it's a very easy read for vacation or a long road trip.
November 1, 2017
Marching Powder details the bizarrely true story of Thomas McFadden who spent four and a half years in the infamous San Pedro prison in Bolivia. The book is written by an Australian backpacker who visits McFadden in prison before striking up a friendship and deciding to detail McFadden’s life and experiences within the notoriously corrupt prison and judicial system.
As the title suggests, there are plenty of drug-related references and violence splattered throughout its pages which include “cocaine tours” for foreign backpackers that became so popular they ended up being written up in the Lonely Planet guides.
Told in an honest and open fashion it’s hard not to like the one-time drug trafficker and this story will have you reading line after line (get it?!) into the wee hours of the night.
As the title suggests, there are plenty of drug-related references and violence splattered throughout its pages which include “cocaine tours” for foreign backpackers that became so popular they ended up being written up in the Lonely Planet guides.
Told in an honest and open fashion it’s hard not to like the one-time drug trafficker and this story will have you reading line after line (get it?!) into the wee hours of the night.
October 3, 2014
San Pedro Prison, La Paz, Bolivia. My word. what a place. Let Thomas McFadden be your guide round this unbelievable institution. You will certainly be in for a journey. Be careful as it is dangerous and I am not sure that Thomas is a completely reliable guide but just go with the flow. You will meet the weird, wonderful, psychotic, mellow and downright crazy inmates and guards.
June 4, 2024
LOVED ITTTTTT really amazing .. true story (which blows my mind) - visited the outside of this prison last year and heard some stories about it and was really cool to learn more. 100% recommend!!!!
December 19, 2017
It has been some time since I've been as absorbed in a book-length character study as this. I was totally taken in by the strength of Rusty Young's storytelling here, but he is not the star of this book. Instead, it is a biography of an English drug trafficker, Thomas McFadden, who was imprisoned in Bolivia's San Pedro prison on drug charges. It's far from a normal prison: Australian author Young met McFadden when he visited San Pedro as a tourist and sampled the cocaine made in-house. "He sniffed a line, slid the CD case over to me and then started talking," Young writes in the first chapter, which is the only one told from his perspective. "Soon, I did not want him to stop."
From that point on, 'Marching Powder' is a fast-paced and entertaining tale of McFadden's years behind bars. The drug trafficker is an expert storyteller, and Young's narrative is so immersive that I found myself sketching mental pictures of San Pedro before too long. Inside the prison, there's an corrupt economy that McFadden can barely comprehend at first. Inmates are expected to buy their cells from real estate agents; shops and restaurant operate behind bars, and women and children live with their imprisoned family members. These inner workings are laid out in colourful detail, and once you're invested in the weird world of San Pedro, you have no choice but to keep reading to know what happens next.
"If prisons are no more than schools for further criminality, then San Pedro prison was the International University of Cocaine, where you could study under some of South America's leading professors: laboratory chemists, expert accountants and worldly businessmen," McFadden notes halfway through. The entrepreneur decides to capitalise on the knowledge and experience of his fellow inmates by offering guided tours to wide-eyed visitors, like Young, and these visits become a big part of how he manages to stay positive throughout most of his time inside, though he is bit by periods of depression for his seemingly hopeless plight.
Importantly, McFadden is self-aware of his storytelling skills, too. In the midst of a massive, all-night party held in his 'cell', he shrugged at the sight of some cocaine that was accidentally spilled onto the carpet by a remorseful New Zealand tourist. The Kiwi's punishment? To cut up ten more lines of coke, as quick as he can, to make up for lost time. "I knew that everyone in that room would be telling the story everywhere they went for the rest of their lives," quipped McFadden, and that remark could also apply to the extraordinary story captured in this book.
From that point on, 'Marching Powder' is a fast-paced and entertaining tale of McFadden's years behind bars. The drug trafficker is an expert storyteller, and Young's narrative is so immersive that I found myself sketching mental pictures of San Pedro before too long. Inside the prison, there's an corrupt economy that McFadden can barely comprehend at first. Inmates are expected to buy their cells from real estate agents; shops and restaurant operate behind bars, and women and children live with their imprisoned family members. These inner workings are laid out in colourful detail, and once you're invested in the weird world of San Pedro, you have no choice but to keep reading to know what happens next.
"If prisons are no more than schools for further criminality, then San Pedro prison was the International University of Cocaine, where you could study under some of South America's leading professors: laboratory chemists, expert accountants and worldly businessmen," McFadden notes halfway through. The entrepreneur decides to capitalise on the knowledge and experience of his fellow inmates by offering guided tours to wide-eyed visitors, like Young, and these visits become a big part of how he manages to stay positive throughout most of his time inside, though he is bit by periods of depression for his seemingly hopeless plight.
Importantly, McFadden is self-aware of his storytelling skills, too. In the midst of a massive, all-night party held in his 'cell', he shrugged at the sight of some cocaine that was accidentally spilled onto the carpet by a remorseful New Zealand tourist. The Kiwi's punishment? To cut up ten more lines of coke, as quick as he can, to make up for lost time. "I knew that everyone in that room would be telling the story everywhere they went for the rest of their lives," quipped McFadden, and that remark could also apply to the extraordinary story captured in this book.
July 23, 2025
Dies sind die faszinierenden Memoiren des Briten Thomas McFadden, der 1996 in das (reale!) bolivianische Gefängnis San Pedro in La Paz inhaftiert wurde. San Pedro wird von staatlichen Wachleuten kaum betreten, sondern durch die Insassen selbst verwaltet, die dort teilweise in Gesellschaft ihrer Familien leben. Es gibt ein eigenes Wirtschaftssystem, in dem Zellen genauso wie Lebensmittel gekauft werden müssen, außerdem Kokainlabore und ein Schwimmbad, in dem die Vergewaltiger ertränkt werden. Da das Wachpersonal für Bestechungsgelder sehr empfänglich ist, kann Thomas Führungen und Partys für Touristen etablieren, sodass San Pedro sogar im Lonely Planet als Attraktion gelistet wird. Der Australier Rusty Young hat seine Geschichte zu Papier gebracht, die trotz kleiner literarischer Schwächen außerordentlich spannend zu lesen ist und Einblicke in ein zunächst unglaublich anmutendes, aufgrund der katastrophalen Lage eines sehr armen und korrupten Staates aber durchaus plausibles System gibt.
September 25, 2013
This non-fiction book about a notoriously corrupt Bolivian prison provides an eye-opening picture of La Paz prison. However I didn't buy the entire "true story" of inmate Thomas McFadden. Call me a cynic I guess.
August 11, 2024
Very insightful, intriguing and totally crazy (being true events). I read this when I was studying criminology at university in my early 20s. A great read.
January 18, 2023
Excellent read. After seeing the pictures at the end of the book, I was shocked to find that the image I had in my head of San Pedro Prison, Thomas’ cell and the courtyard were almost identical to the pics. Even the colour of the room which I don’t recall being mentioned
June 30, 2023
I gave this a 5 because of the content, which is incredible; not for the writing style, which is not.
December 26, 2023
Very interesting.
July 23, 2024
Not the best written book but the story is captivating.
January 13, 2026
Crazy story, get me back to La Paz. Felt a tad hyperbolic at times. Nice short chapters if anyone wants an easy read.
June 2, 2022
WOW what a story! I would love to know where Thomas is in the world 22 years later..Joh San Pedro prison is not for the faint hearted.. I read this book in record time.. brilliant
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