This is the story of an ordinary man who became the king of the largest slum in Rio, the head of a drug cartel and Brazil’s most notorious criminal.
A man who tried to bring welfare and justice to a playground of gang culture and destitution, while everyone around him drew guns and partied.
It’s a story of gold-hunters and evangelical pastors, bent police and rich-kid addicts, politicians and drug lords and the battle for the beautiful but damned city of Rio.

The astonishing story of an ordinary man forced to make a decision that would turn his world upside down
How did Antônio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, a hardworking young father, become the king of Rocinha, the largest slum in Rio; the head of a drug cartel; and perhaps Brazil’s most wanted criminal, known to all as “Nem”? Nemesis is the riveting account of his ruthless ascent in Rio’s terrifying underworld, his sway over its anarchic outlaw culture, and his accidental fall. Nem tried to bring welfare and justice to a playground of gang culture and destitution, but he quickly found himself embroiled in a world of gold hunters and evangelical pastors, bent police officers and rich-kid addicts, quixotic politicians and drug lords with math degrees.
Spanning rainforests and high-security prisons, filthy slums and glittering shopping malls, Nemesis chronicles Brazil’s journey into the global spotlight—and the battle for the beautiful but damned city of Rio as it struggles to break free from a tangled web of corruption, violence, drugs and poverty. Nem is held at the center of it all, locked in a fight for his country’s future.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and entrepreneurs alike became intoxicated by dreams of newly opened markets. But no one could have foreseen that the greatest success story to arise from these events would be the worldwide rise of organized crime. Today, it is estimated that illegal trade accounts for one-fifth of the global GDP.
In this fearless and wholly authoritative investigation of the seemingly insatiable demand for illegal wares, veteran reporter Misha Glenny travels across five continents to speak with participants from every level of the global underworld—police, victims, politicians, and even the criminals themselves. What follows is a groundbreaking, propulsive look at an unprecedented phenomenon from a savvy, street-wise guide.