Max Mermelstein made out to be a villain.

I thought it was silly how Rivi was saying, "he had a face you couldn't trust" or whatever. It had nothing to do with his appearance. Jon Roberts ended up snitching and they never presented him this way. I bet 90% of the cartel members would have snitched to avoid jail time if they had been caught. Max even says to Roberts that he has heat on him before getting pinched. If he was a willing informant, he would have sought out the Feds instead of the other way round.

And after getting pinched, it was business as usual for Roberts and Co. I mean really did they think nothing would happen considering the guy that masterminded the whole import operation got taken by the Feds. This seemed so ludicrous to me. The first thing I would do is pack up my money and get the *beep* out of dodge.


Furthermore, I am amazed how Max's role in the operation is kind of glossed over. I was reading his wiki entry and apparently he was so highly regarded in the Medellin Cartel, that he was the only American allowed to sit into their meetings. They don't really emphasise how important he was to the operation at all during the documentary.