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Cocaine Cowboys
By 1980, the federal government concluded that local police departments and governments were so riddled with corruption that outside intervention was the only way to put heat on the Colombians. The federal salvo was the first multiagency money-laundering task force ever assembled, the U.S. Customs–IRS Operation Greenback. Its goal was to electronically track large cash transactions. Its first seizure was a plane carrying $1.2 million, about to take off from Miami for Colombia. Two Colombian pilots were arrested. The Medellín cartel held the pilots personally responsible for losing the money; each had family members murdered in Colombia.
Cocaine use was so widespread in South Florida that it was often used as currency. Bobby Weinstein, a midlevel dealer, paid many of his bills with cocaine. “An eight ball was worth $350,” he says, “and everyone knew that. My dentist always took coke for his work. I got my hair cut for half a gram, rented speedboats for two eight balls, bought clothes with grams. If you had coke, almost everyone took it as payment.”
“Scarface was a fully integrated image of Miami,” says real-estate developer Craig Robins. “A documentary,” says one drug dealer
From MIAMI BABYLON by Gerald Posner. Copyright © 2009 by Gerald L. Posner. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's chief investigative reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
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Gerald Posner is former chief investigative reporter for The Daily Beast. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, on topics ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
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Gerald Posner is former chief investigative reporter for The Daily Beast. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, on topics ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
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Gerald Posner is former chief investigative reporter for The Daily Beast. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, on topics ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
Nuld001
Miami Babylon definitely proves that real life is indeed stranger than fiction - and this is just one of the juicy chapters. Brilliantly written with an attention to detail and loaded with facts that only Gerald Posner, investigative journalist and master story teller provides the reader, Miami Babylon has already caused controversy in Miami among some of the big hitters. This is a guaranteed exciting read.
CitizenBloggerX
This exerpt reads like a bad episode of Miami Vice !! If Posner wanted a real accounting of what South Fl ( WPB to Key West ) was like in the early eighties he should talk to me, I could give him first hand accounts of shit that would take his breath one minute and make him puke the next, He highlights on the "Kingpins " He should focus on the soldiers who did and witnessed what made the "Kingpins what they were !!
DocHumboldt
Hey, great! What's you address? I'll be over tomorrow. -"Gerald"
OK so, "we", ahem, "I", am not Gerald. We're the DEA, the FBI and the IRS.
gimadi
In the 'info' with the first picture in the Gallery of "Cocaine Cowboys", we are told that Enrico Caruso sang for Al Capone in 1928... rather difficult, as the great tenor had died in 1921.
CitizenBloggerX
Statute of limitations my friend !! I've never harmed a fly *wink *
briansays
In a related vain I am finishing and highly recommend "Breakshot A Life In the 21st Century Mafia" by Kenji Gallo
At a young age a major force in organize crime in Orange County California and now a federally protected witness with an open contract on his life
Book shows how common coke was in an affluent and predominantly white Orange County in the 80s with similar violence and moves then into the growth of the porn industry in LA
I lived in OC for 20 years and recall how we would all go home early on Friday night to watch Miami Vice
Little did we realize what was going on in our own towns of Irvine and Newport Beach
Great read and he names names with some of the public names that pop up an eye opener
larryt
Scarface a "documentary?? The thread that makes Oliver Stones productions so real is just how factual they can be, or seem. History similar to the Columbian dramas were acted out in previous decades by other nationalities and over different substances. Wanna make peace?? Make substances legal like we did with booze. Control and tax it. Let the middleman, aka: the taxman (supposedly you and me) profit and control the bloodshed. Sounds simple but don't hold your breath.
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