A powerful and sophisticated secret business brings thousands of refugees into Europe daily via the continent's Mediterranean coast. The new generation of criminals who control it originates from the chaos caused by post-9/11 Western foreign policy and the Arab Spring fiasco. These merchants of men are intertwined with armed jihadist groups, such as Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, and have prospered by smuggling cocaine from West Africa and kidnapping foreigners. More recently, the destabilization of Syria and Iraq, coupled with the rise of the Islamic State, has offered them new business opportunities in the Middle East: from the sale of Western hostages to jihadist groups to the trafficking of refugees numbering in the millions. Overall, the kidnapping industry surpasses that of the illegal drug trade and generates hundreds of billions of dollars annually. *Merchants of Men* is based on previously unpublished conversations with hostage negotiators, rescue mission members, counterterrorism experts, security officials, and former hostages, among many others. The reader will discover that prevention and rescue protocols vary depending on the type of kidnapping and the designated targets, and will learn firsthand about the wide range of experiences that kidnapping victims go through.
