Zerozerozero by Roberto Saviano, book review: The terrifying violence of the cocaine trade

What is cocaine? It is, for one, an addictive drug usually derived from coca, a tropical American plant. It is also, says Roberto Saviano, what our world is made of. It is a package in a baby's nappy; a block of white stuff hidden in a container of bananas; the 1.78 tons in a drinking water tank in the hold of the Master Endeavour, a merchant ship heading for West Africa. It is a drug-swallower, previously stuffed with drug capsules, now serenely wearing a jacket impregnated with liquid cocaine. It is 65 per cent pure cocaine cut with Levamisole, used for treating intestinal worms in livestock, or it is ZeroZeroZero, an ironic name given to the best kind of cocaine, as 000 flour is the best flour for pasta.