"Cocaine Cowboys" investigates and discloses the commodity that helped make Miami what it is today. I know there are some who bemoan the fact that the Miami of today has anything to do with the drug economy of the 70's and 80's, then there are those who relish the fact Miami was built on drugs. And if you take away anything from this documentary it is that Miami was built on drugs.
There were a lot of names mentioned in this documentary, though most of them are not worth repeating. Most of the narrating was done by three people:
Jon Roberts, a wholesale drug dealer who worked with the Medellin cartel.
Mickey Munday, a drug runner.
Jorge "Vivi" Ayala, an enforcer.
They all narrate how easy it was to move drugs into the country from Colombia through Florida. They also narrate about the obscene amounts of money they made, and finally, the intense violence that led to the end of the big time drug trafficking. One person who escalated the violence was Griselda Blanco aka the Black Widow aka the Queen of Cocaine. She was a ruthless drug queenpin who would just as soon shoot you as say hi to you. Her blood lust drove the Miami murder rate up to over 500 a year by 1980, and it subsequently brought all kinds of law enforcement heat down on everyone.
Everyone narrating in this documentary speaks so casually and matter-of-factly as though they were talking about developing and selling the newest widget when in fact they're talking about bringing poison into the country as well as drug wars. I found it hard to listen to them and not have a serious loathing towards them when the millions they earned was blood money. But these are the guys in the know. They were a part of the culture and they are best suited to talk about a stage in American history that many would like to forget.
There were a lot of names mentioned in this documentary, though most of them are not worth repeating. Most of the narrating was done by three people:
Jon Roberts, a wholesale drug dealer who worked with the Medellin cartel.
Mickey Munday, a drug runner.
Jorge "Vivi" Ayala, an enforcer.
They all narrate how easy it was to move drugs into the country from Colombia through Florida. They also narrate about the obscene amounts of money they made, and finally, the intense violence that led to the end of the big time drug trafficking. One person who escalated the violence was Griselda Blanco aka the Black Widow aka the Queen of Cocaine. She was a ruthless drug queenpin who would just as soon shoot you as say hi to you. Her blood lust drove the Miami murder rate up to over 500 a year by 1980, and it subsequently brought all kinds of law enforcement heat down on everyone.
Everyone narrating in this documentary speaks so casually and matter-of-factly as though they were talking about developing and selling the newest widget when in fact they're talking about bringing poison into the country as well as drug wars. I found it hard to listen to them and not have a serious loathing towards them when the millions they earned was blood money. But these are the guys in the know. They were a part of the culture and they are best suited to talk about a stage in American history that many would like to forget.