book

The Wireless Operator

Government agencies and rival factions were closing in. His look-alike had already fallen victim to professional hitmen and his once-powerful allies in Cuban intelligence and the DEA could no longer guarantee his safety. How did a boy from Manchester revolutionize the criminal world and become the largest marijuana trafficker in history?

This is the never-before-told story of Harold Derber, the debonair British Merchant Navy veteran who pioneered the modern drug trade with his groundbreaking invention: the drug mothership. Through his ghost fleet of drug ships, Derber eventually become the chief supplier of marijuana to post-war America. This gripping true tale follows Derber from humble beginnings in Manchester, England to his assassination in the sun-kissed streets of Miami. Along the way, Derber’s story takes in some of the most significant events of the twentieth century – the Second World War’s Battle of the Atlantic, the Cuban Revolution and the murky shadows of the Cold War.

Shedding light on a litany of plots including arms and refugee smuggling, large-scale stock fraud and Derber’s rise to the pinnacle of the drug world, this remarkable transatlantic story paints a complex picture of a singular figure and brings his extraordinary life into focus for the first time.

Reviews

‘A propulsive and illuminating biography. Tuch’s deep dive is suspenseful and well researched, shedding fascinating light on a shadowy 20th-century figure.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘An intriguing portrait of a real-life trafficker teeming with enterprise and international crime.’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘David Tuch brings the remarkable story of Harold Derber — refugee, gun-runner, ethical people smuggler and revolutionary drug-trafficker — out of the shadows. And what a tale it is: an extraordinary life of adventure (and misadventure), and a rollicking good read.’ — Tim Tate, author of To Catch a Spy

‘The Wireless Operator is history written with a fuse burning—WWII survival, Cold War spycraft, Miami mob politics, narcotics innovation, refugee smuggling, assassination attempts, and a romance between rival intelligence networks. Tuch turns a family secret into a sprawling chronicle of the twentieth century’s shadow economies.’ — Film Daily

‘An impressively well-researched and fascinating book about the Cold War, Cuba, Miami, spooks, spies, guns, drugs, and general chaos.’ — Vince Houghton, intelligence historian and co-author of Covert City: The Cold War and the Making of Miami

‘David Tuch has unearthed a true story so bizarre that nobody would blame his readers for not believing that this is non-fiction. The protagonist, Harold Derber, transforms from a good Manchester boy to a daring pioneer of the drug trade in such improbable ways that it all feels like a feverish dream. Read at your own risk!’ — Lina Britto, Department of History, Northwestern University, author of Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia’s First Drug Paradise

PURCHASE now

Amazon US Amazon UK

reviews

‘David Tuch has unearthed a true story so bizarre than nobody would blame his readers for not believing that this is non-fiction. The protagonist, Harold Derber, transforms from a good Manchester boy to a daring pioneer of the drug trade in such improbable ways that it all feels like a feverish dream. Read at your own risk!’
— Lina Britto
Department of History, Northwestern University, author of Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia’s First Drug Paradise
‘A propulsive and illuminating biography. Tuch’s deep dive is suspenseful and well researched, shedding fascinating light on a shadowy 20th-century figure.’
— Publishers Weekly
‘David Tuch brings the remarkable story of Harold Derber — refugee, gun-runner, ethical people smuggler and revolutionary drug-trafficker — out of the shadows. And what a tale it is: an extraordinary life of adventure (and misadventure), and a rollicking good read.’
— Tim Tate
Author of To Catch a Spy
‘Full of grit and hard-won truths. Derber is truly one of the greatest criminals we’ve never heard of — until now.’
— Patrick Winn
Author of Narcotopia
‘An impressively well-researched and fascinating book about the Cold War, Cuba, Miami, spooks, spies, guns, drugs, and general chaos.’
— Vince Houghton
Intelligence historian and co-author of Covert City: The Cold War and the Making of Miami

pre order now

Amazon US Amazon UK

REVIEWS

‘A propulsive and illuminating biography. Tuch’s deep dive is suspenseful and well researched, shedding fascinating light on a shadowy 20th-century figure.’
Publishers Weekly
‘David Tuch brings the remarkable story of Harold Derber — refugee, gun-runner, ethical people smuggler and revolutionary drug-trafficker — out of the shadows. And what a tale it is: an extraordinary life of adventure (and misadventure), and a rollicking good read.’
Tim Tate
Author of To Catch a Spy
‘The Wireless Operator is history written with a fuse burning—WWII survival, Cold War spycraft, Miami mob politics, narcotics innovation, refugee smuggling, assassination attempts, and a romance between rival intelligence networks. Tuch turns a family secret into a sprawling chronicle of the twentieth century’s shadow economies.’
Film Daily
Author of To Catch a Spy
‘An impressively well-researched and fascinating book about the Cold War, Cuba, Miami, spooks, spies, guns, drugs, and general chaos.’
Vince Houghton
Intelligence historian and co-author of Covert City: The Cold War and the Making of Miami
‘David Tuch has unearthed a true story so bizarre that nobody would blame his readers for not believing that this is non-fiction. The protagonist, Harold Derber, transforms from a good Manchester boy to a daring pioneer of the drug trade in such improbable ways that it all feels like a feverish dream. Page after page, Tuch’s cinematic prose brings to life soldiers, smugglers, sailors, pilots, spies, journalists, diplomats, presidents, dictators, and hitmen trying to outsmart each other, making us witnesses, even accomplices, of their criminal enterprises. In the process, an obscure chapter of 20th-century history reveals its unbridled truth. Read at your own risk!’
Lina Britto
Department of History, Northwestern University, author of Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia’s First Drug Paradise

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