The follow-up to Mazur’s New York Times bestselling memoir The Infiltrator, of which the movie version came out in 2016 starring Bryan Cranston as Mazur.
THE BETRAYAL:
My Undercover Struggle With Deceit, Corruption & Death
by Robert Mazur
Amazon Publishing, Summer 2022
After the events of The Infiltrator, the story’s main character still wants more adrenaline. He’s come to realize the chase is like a drug for him when he’s recruited by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to be the lead undercover agent in another dangerous two-year covert operation. The offer to Special Agent Robert Mazur is to infiltrate the corrupt financial networks of Panama and Colombia in order to become embedded as a money launderer within Colombia’s notorious Cali Drug Cartel. He couldn’t say “No” because this was likely his last chance to resume his obsession—an addicted desire to expose more international banks and businesses laundering money and power into the heart of the underworld.
Robert Mazur was a federal agent for 27 years. During 5 years of his law enforcement career he was a long-term undercover agent, operating in deep cover within the underworld as a high-level money launderer for senior members of Colombian drug cartels. He not only dealt directly with cartel leaders, but also functioned as their counduit to corrupt international bankers around the world. He is court-certified in both the U.S. and Canada as an expert in money laundering. Mr. Mazur has been a significant contributor to news and media outlets, including the New York Times, PBS, ABC and NBC. His first book, The Infiltrator (also available) was made into a feature film starring Bryan Cranston.
Robert Mazur spent years undercover infiltrating the Medellín Cartel’s criminal hierarchy. The dirty bankers and businessmen he befriended – some of whom still shape power across the globe – knew him as Bob Musella, a wealthy, mob-connected big shot living the good life. Together they partied in $1,000-per-night hotel suites, drank bottles of the world’s finest champagne, drove Rolls-Royce convertibles, and flew in private jets. But under Mazur’s Armani suits and in his Renwick briefcase, recorders whirred silently, capturing the damning evidence of their crimes.
Federal Agent Robert Mazur spent five years undercover as a money launderer to the international underworld, gaining access to the zenith of a criminal hierarchy safeguarded by a circle of dirty bankers and businessmen who quietly shape power across the globe. These men and women control multibillion-dollar drug-trafficking empires, running their organizations like public companies. Accountants, attorneys, and financial advisors, their roots run deep in their communities, and they are laundering billions of dollars a year, manipulating complex international finance systems to serve drug lords, corrupt politicians, tax cheats, and terrorists. In 1987, Mazur began infiltrating BCCI, bankers behind the Medellín cartel. He meticulously gathered evidence for years until, during a fake wedding, federal agents arrested over 40 high-ranking criminals, who were all found guilty and sent to prison. Never before told, this is the incredible, true story of how he did it.