This book is a powerful and timely account of an extraordinary crime phenomeneon in which life is cheap and money talks as gangs fight a deadly battle for control of numerous lucrative illegal activities, which are literally underpinning the economy of the continent's most outrageous coastline. With unprecedented access to senior gang members and police officers, Clarkson traces the roots of the criminals and focuses on the emergence of the main gangs - many of whom are fighting a bitter war that has sparked battles between gangsters from Britain, Europe, South America and the former Soviet block states.