This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(August 2021) |
Cocaine Cowboys | |
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Directed by | Billy Corben |
Produced by | Alfred Spellman Billy Corben David Cypkin |
Starring | Jon Roberts Mickey Munday Jorge "Rivi" Ayala |
Cinematography | Armando Salas |
Edited by | Billy Corben David Cypkin |
Music by | Jan Hammer |
Distributed by | Magnolia Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 116 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Cocaine Cowboys is a 2006 documentary film directed by Billy Corben, and produced by Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben through their Miami-based media studio Rakontur. The film explores the rise of cocaine dealer Jon Roberts, described by prosecutors as "The Medellin Cartel's American representative". The film chronicles his role in the Miami drug war (the resulting crime epidemic that swept the American city of Miami, Florida, in the 1970s and 1980s). The producers of Cocaine Cowboys use interviews with law enforcement, journalists, lawyers, former drug smugglers, and gang members to provide a first-hand perspective of the Miami drug war.
Cocaine Cowboys chronicles the development of the illegal drug trade in Miami during the 1970s and 1980s with interviews of both law enforcement and organized crime leaders, in addition to news footage from the era. The film reveals that in the 1960s and early 1970s, marijuana was the primary import drug into the region. During the 1970s, marijuana imports were replaced by the much more lucrative cocaine imports; as more cocaine was smuggled into the United States, the price dropped, allowing it to turn "blue collar" and become accessible to a wider market.
Drug smugglers reveal several of the different methods used to smuggle the drug into Florida. The primary methods of transport were aircraft or boats. The drug smugglers also reveal the complexity of their smuggling methods. The logistics involved included the purchase and financing of legitimate businesses to provide cover for illegal operations, the use of sophisticated electronic homing devices, and other elaborate transportation schemes.
The film also addresses the difficulty importers sometimes had storing all the money they made, as a result of which they set up a relationship with Manuel Noriega in Panama and also bought up entire neighborhoods of houses, putting money into infrastructure as well as investing in side projects such as race horses.
The distribution networks were also highly elaborate, and many people were involved locally and nationally in the consumption of the imported cocaine. Importers reveal that condominiums were purchased near particular ocean waterways to provide a monitoring post for U.S. Coast Guard and local police patrol boats, and high-tech radio equipment was used to monitor the radio frequencies of federal, state, and local authorities in order to warn incoming boats and airplanes.
The film reveals that much of the economic growth which took place in Miami during this period was a benefit of the drug trade. As members of the drug trade made immense amounts of money, this money flowed in large amounts into legitimate businesses. Consequently, drug money indirectly financed the construction of many of the modern high-rise buildings in southern Florida. Later, when law enforcement pressure drove many major players out of the picture, numerous high-end stores and businesses closed because of plummeting sales.
Also documented in the film is the gangland violence associated with the trade. The interviewees in the film argue that Griselda Blanco, an infamous crime family matriarch, played a major role in the history of the drug trade in Miami and other cities across America. It was the lawless and corrupt atmosphere, primarily from Blanco's operations, that led to the gangsters being dubbed the "Cocaine Cowboys".
The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2006, and distribution rights to the film in English speaking territories were licensed to Magnolia Pictures. The film opened in U.S. theaters with a limited release on October 27, 2006. Czech-American musician Jan Hammer of Miami Vice fame composed and performed the film's original score.
The film began appearing on Showtime on December 7, 2007. [1]
A revised and extended version of the film, titled Cocaine Cowboys: Reloaded, was released on DVD in April 2014. [2]
According to an interview with Billy Corben in 2021, the documentary was originally to be called "City Made of Snow", and it was to include an interview with Miguel Perez, a marielito who had attempted to kill a Colombian drug dealer, Papo Mejia, in the Miami airport with a bayonet, and worked with hitman Jorge "Rivi" Ayala. [3]
The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws. The think tank Global Financial Integrity's Transnational Crime and the Developing World report estimates the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652 billion in 2014 alone. With a world GDP of US$78 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as nearly 1% of total global trade. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally, and it remains very difficult for local authorities to reduce the rates of drug consumption.
The Medellín Cartel was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia, that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered to be the first major "drug cartel" and was referred to as such due to the organization's upper echelons and overall power-structure being built on a partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. Other members included Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, and Carlos Lehder. Escobar's main partner in the organization was his cousin Gustavo Gaviria, who handled much of the cartel's shipping arrangements and the more general and detailed logistical aspects of the cocaine trafficking routes and international smuggling networks, which were supplying at least 80% of the world's cocaine during its peak.
Brian O'Dea is a Canadian businessman, author, television personality, and former drug smuggler. He is best-known for a large marijuana smuggling enterprise he masterminded in the mid-1980s. Set up to move marijuana in bulk from Southeast Asia to the Pacific Northwest and California, between 1986 and 1988, O'Dea's organization successfully smuggled 76 tons of marijuana worth about $300 million into Washington, transported it to California, and distributed it throughout the United States.
Griselda Blanco Restrepo was a Colombian drug lord who was prominent in the cocaine-based drug trade and underworld of Miami, during the 1970s through the early 2000s, and who has also been claimed by some to have been part of the Medellín Cartel. She was shot dead in Medellín on September 3, 2012 at the age of 69.
Jon Pernell Roberts was an American drug trafficker who operated in the Miami area and was an associate of the Colombian Medellín Cartel during the growth phase in cocaine trafficking, 1975–1986. Roberts was the author with Evan Wright of American Desperado.
Max Mermelstein was an American drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel in the late 1970s and early 80s, who later became a key informant against the organization. In the words of James P. Walsh, the U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles CA, Mermelstein "was probably the single most valuable government witness in drug matters that this country has ever known." He became a "weapon for the government". Reputed to have smuggled 56 tons of cocaine worth $12.5 billion into the United States,
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise.
rakontur is a Miami-based media studio founded by Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman in 2000.
Cocaine Cowboys 2, also known as Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin' With the Godmother, is a 2008 documentary film sequel to Cocaine Cowboys (2006). Directed by Billy Corben and Lisa M. Perry and produced by Rakontur, the film features Charles Cosby, Nelson Andreu, and Jorge "Rivi" Ayala and the Colombian-born "Cocaine Godmother", drug lord Griselda Blanco.
William Cohen, better known by the stage name Billy Corben, is an American documentary film director. Along with producing partner Alfred Spellman, he is co-founder of the Miami-based studio Rakontur, which has created films such as Cocaine Cowboys, Dawg Fight, The U, and The U Part 2.
Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja is a 2011 documentary by director Billy Corben and produced by Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben through their Miami-based media studio Rakontur. The term square grouper was a nickname given to bales of marijuana thrown overboard or out of airplanes in South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s.
Alfred Spellman is an American film and television producer who co-founded the media studio rakontur.
Michael "Mickey" Munday is an American former drug trafficker and former associate of Colombia's Medellin Cartel during the growth phase in cocaine trafficking, 1975–1986. Munday was featured in the 2006 Rakontur documentary, Cocaine Cowboys.
Drug barons of Colombia refer to some of the most notable drug lords which operate in illegal drug trafficking in Colombia. Several of them, notably Pablo Escobar, were long considered among the world's most dangerous and most wanted men by U.S. intelligence. "Ruthless and immensely powerful", several political leaders, such as President Virgilio Barco Vargas, became convinced that the drug lords were becoming so powerful that they could oust the formal government and run the country.
The Miami drug war was a series of armed conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s, centered in the city of Miami, Florida, between the United States government and multiple drug cartels, primarily the Medellín Cartel. It was predominantly fueled by the illegal trafficking of cocaine.
Jorge Ayala-Rivera, also known as "Rivi" is a Colombian criminal who is best known for his work as a hitman for Medellín Cartel leader Griselda Blanco. In 1993, Ayala was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami is a 2021 six part docuseries chronicling the rise and fall of Miami drug lords Sal Magluta and Willy Falcon. The two were eventually indicted in one of the largest drug cases in United States history, accused of illegally smuggling 75 tons of cocaine into the country. The series is directed by Billy Corben who previously directed three Cocaine Cowboys documentary films, each featuring a different set of criminals associated with the cocaine trade.
Salvador "Sal" Magluta is a Cuban American former drug kingpin and powerboat racer who, along with his partner Willy Falcon, operated one of the most significant cocaine trafficking organizations in South Florida history. The duo became known as Los Muchachos, Spanish for "The Boys".
The cocaine boom was a stark increase in the illegal production and trade of the drug cocaine that first began in the mid to late 1970s before then peaking during the 1980s. The boom was the result of organized smugglers who imported cocaine from Latin America to the United States, and a rising demand in cocaine due to cultural trends in the United States. Smuggling rings of Cuban exiles organized trade networks from Latin America to Miami that streamlined the import of cocaine to the United States. Americans also began favoring less of the drugs popular in the 60s counterculture such as marijuana and LSD, and instead began to prefer cocaine due to a mystique of prestige that was developing around it. This increase in cocaine trade fueled the rise of the crack epidemic and government sponsored anti-drug campaigns.
Square grouper is a slang term for compressed bales of illicit marijuana that appear on the U.S. Gulf Coast, sometimes lost by smugglers in errant air drops or sea to sea transfers, and sometimes intentionally dumped by crews who fear being caught with illegal drugs.