Dragon Chaser

Book excerpt: When nineteen-year-old Mark Lloyd entered the US Army in Seattle, Washington, in 1968, he thought he was invulnerable. His induction that year marked the beginning of a long career in public service. In Dragon Chaser, he recounts his journey--entering the army, earning a green beret, serving in Vietnam, working as a police officer on the streets of south central Los Angeles, and joining the DEA. In this memoir, Lloyd tells how he became an undercover narcotics agent and served in the world's illegal drug hot spots--chasing the dragon of illicit heroin in Los Angeles, Guam, and Thailand. Dragon Chaser narrates how he led teams of DEA agents raiding jungle cocaine laboratories and ambushing clandestine airstrips in Peru, how he helped solve DEA's worst case of corruption in Los Angeles, and how he managed some of DEA's foreign operations while assigned to DEA headquarters. The stories include Lloyd's deployment on a special mission to war-scarred Bosnia, and how he successfully handled a difficult narcotics case involving a DEA employee falsely imprisoned by the recalcitrant Pakistani government. A remarkable memoir of a baby boomer's adventures in public service, Dragon Chaser recounts Lloyd's participation and observations in some of America's actions, both major and minor, throughout the last four decades.