---
title: The unexpected economics of the global drug trade
description: Rusty Young in conversation with Mike Walsh
---

[Between Worlds ](https://www.mike-walsh.com/podcast)

# [The unexpected economics of the global drug trade](https://www.mike-walsh.com/podcast/rusty-young)

 Written by [Mike Walsh](https://www.mike-walsh.com/podcast/author/mike-walsh) | Feb 12, 2018 12:14:01 PM

 

Rusty Young has spent his life living, and writing about things that most of us would feel uncomfortable thinking about, let alone actually experiencing. Strangely enough, he and I first met at law school many years ago. But while after graduation, I left to join the digital industry, he travelled to South America where he met Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia's famous San Pedro Prison, and ended writing about his story in his first bestselling book, ‘[Marching Powder](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43081.Marching_Powder)’. Rusty was then recruited as a Program Director of the US government's Anti-Kidnapping Program in Colombia, after which he released a new novel about Colombia's child soldiers called '[Colombiano](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/colombiano-9780143781547)’, and a documentary on the drug trade called ‘[Wildlands](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr57_D6ZBGc)’. Catching up with him in Sydney, we spoke about the global drug trade, how Cartels design their technology stack, and the economics of the world’s strangest prison.

 

[View full post](https://www.mike-walsh.com/podcast/rusty-young)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Mike Walsh"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2018-02-12T12:17:01.229Z",
  "datePublished" : "2018-02-12T12:14:01Z",
  "headline" : "The unexpected economics of the global drug trade",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 3992,
    "url" : "https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/87597/images/Between%20Worlds/Rusty%20Young.jpg",
    "width" : 5976
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.mike-walsh.com/podcast/rusty-young",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Between Worlds"
  }
}
```