Hotel Scarface


Book Description

The wild, true story of the Mutiny, the hotel and club that embodied the decadence of Miami’s cocaine cowboys heyday—and an inspiration for the blockbuster film, Scarface... In the seventies, coke hit Miami with the full force of a hurricane, and no place attracted dealers and dopers like Coconut Grove’s Mutiny at Sailboat Bay. Hollywood royalty, rock stars, and models flocked to the hotel’s club to order bottle after bottle of Dom and to snort lines alongside narcos, hit men, and gunrunners, all while marathon orgies burned upstairs in elaborate fantasy suites. Amid the boatloads of powder and cash reigned the new kings of Miami: three waves of Cuban immigrants vying to dominate the trafficking of one of the most lucrative commodities ever known to man. But as the kilos—and bodies—began to pile up, the Mutiny became target number one for law enforcement. Based on exclusive interviews and never-before-seen documents, Hotel Scarface is a portrait of a city high on excess and greed, an extraordinary work of investigative journalism offering an unprecedented view of the rise and fall of cocaine—and the Mutiny—in Miami.




Cocaine Cowboys


Book Description

COCAINE COWBOYS tells the story of Ireland's love affair with cocaine since it first washed ashore on Cork's rugged coast to the billion-euro trade it has become. From Ireland's first cocaine lord and his attempts to establish a direct route from Miami to Dublin to the modern-day violence that led to the brutal dismemberment of teenager Keane Mulready Woods, the book will follow the stories and the increasing chaos that has engulfed those desperate for a slice of this modern day gold rush. Along the way it details how cocaine has woven bonds between high society and the underworld, tracing the deal that killed the model Katy French and detailing how the Kinahan Cartel and Ireland's one time richest and most influential family joined forces to wash dirty money. COCAINE COWBOYS is the definitive tale of the rise of Colombia's most famous export to become the drug of a nation.




American Desperado


Book Description

American Desperado is possibly the most jaw-dropping, event-filled, adrenaline-soaked criminal autobiography ever written. Like a real-life Scarface Jon was born into the upper levels of the Gambino crime family and witnessed his first murder at age seven. He became a one-man juvenile crime wave before joining an assassination squad in Vietnam.




Dancing with a Cocaine Cowboy


Book Description

'After dinner a small mountain of coke was emptied onto a glass surface, the music was turned up and the party continued. This is what Colombians did. And everyone danced, including the men.' When a free-spirited young woman from Sydney's northern beaches left Australia to dance her way around the world, little did she know she would be catapulted into the middle of a European cocaine ring on her first day in Paris. A dancer with the Moulin Rouge, Robyn Windshuttle's life changed irrevocably the moment she met Daniel, a handsome and charismatic Colombian. Drawn together by an irresistible chemistry, Robyn takes Daniel at his word. But he is not, as first thought, a photographer for the Nikon Gallery and she becomes an unwitting accomplice to the cutthroat dealings of Daniel's Colombian drug syndicate. Honest, evocative and full of spirit, Dancing with a Cocaine Cowboy moves from Sydney to Paris, Ibiza, Monte Carlo and Bogota in a rich, exciting and exotic swirl. And with great strength and resilience, Robyn eventually reclaims her own life and that of the son she had with Daniel from this turbulent world.




Kings of Cocaine


Book Description

This is the story of the most successful cocaine dealers in the world: Pablo Escobar Gaviria, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, Carlos Lehder Rivas and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. In the 1980s they controlled more than fifty percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States. The cocaine trade is capitalism on overdrive -- supply meeting demand on exponential levels. Here you'll find the story of how the modern cocaine business started and how it turned a rag tag group of hippies and sociopaths into regal kings as they stumbled from small-time suitcase smuggling to levels of unimaginable sophistication and daring. The $2 billion dollar system eventually became so complex that it required the manipulation of world leaders, corruption of revolutionary movements and the worst kind of violence to protect.




Cocaine Cowboys


Book Description

A lavishly illustrated companion to the acclaimed documentary of the same name and the definitive document of Miami's cocaine wars during the flamboyant and ultimately tragic 1970s and 1980s. The Cocaine Cowboys films are comprised of numerous dramatic storylines which tell the unflinching truth of how Miami became the cocaine capital of the US. By the early 1980s, Miami's homicide rate had tripled and the city was dubbed Paradise Lost.




The Bluegrass Conspiracy


Book Description

When Kentucky Blueblood Drew Thornton parachuted to his death in September 1985—carrying thousands in cash and 150 pounds of cocaine—the gruesome end of his startling life blew open a scandal that reached to the most secret circles of the U.S. government. The story of Thornton and “The Company” he served, and the lone heroic fight of State Policeman Ralph Ross against an international web of corruption is one of the most portentous tales of the 20th century.




Gringo Cocaine Cartel


Book Description

An inside true grit story of the Colombian, Peruvian and Bolivian underworld and several violent years before Pablo Escobar took charge of the cocaine narco trade. Escobar being far from the original of the heavy Cartel leaders during the seventies and early nine-teen eighties. There also existed a half dozen Gringo Cartels across South America. Mainly in Colombia and Bolivia. This is the story of one such gang and of the profits they gained and the terrible violence that they spread across two Continents. From their first flight in a mid-sized twin engine Cessna from the far away clandestine runways in Northern Colombia to the Bahamas with their first load of a thousand pounds of marijuana. Eventually the change to the far most lucrative business on the entire Continent. The Cocaine Trade. This is a story of a few high octane cocaine cowboys from Florida who decided to take their chances to possibly gain the vast fortunes that their Colombian counterparts were enjoying the fruits of. It is about an unlikely group of Gringos who teamed up to be a smuggling force to be reckoned with across all of Europe and the Americas in the late 1970's and early 1980's. While the getting was still there for those that do not divagate from danger or the violence that draw men of reckless blood to such environments.




Chemical Cowboys


Book Description

In 1995, after receiving a tip from an informant that a new drug called Ecstasy was being pushed in Manhattan’s nightclubs, DEA agent Robert Gagne embarked on a mission to unravel one of the world’s most lucrative drug-trafficking networks. Chemical Cowboys tracks Gagne as he infiltrates New York’s club scene, uncovering a multimillion-dollar criminal empire that spans continents. At its helm is Oded “Fat Man” Tuito, an Israeli fugitive and elusive drug kingpin who combines Wall Street business savvy with old-fashioned street smarts and a taste for violence. A taut behind-the-scenes glimpse into an international criminal enterprise, Chemical Cowboys is a riveting tale of one man’s obsessive pursuit of justice—and the personal cost of that obsession.




A History of Smuggling in Florida


Book Description

Why Florida has been a smuggler’s paradise for centuries—and how traffic in everything from weapons to exotic flowers has shaped the state’s history. Amateur smugglers may sneak a box of Cuban cigars into the U.S. here and there—but in the big picture, untaxed and untraced commerce, aka contraband, is a trillion-dollar-per-year global business. New technologies to discover and curb smuggling are met by equally well-equipped perpetrators, determined to stay below the radar. With its long coastline, hundreds of remote landing strips, and airports clogged with sun-seeking tourists, Florida is a superhighway of smuggling. It is easy to move illegal goods like weapons, drugs, slaves, exotic birds and flowers, all while avoiding the best efforts of U.S. and international customs authorities. Who does this smuggling? Well one Florida governor and the wife of another, for starters. Everyone from hardscrabble commercial fishermen, Spanish explorers, Mafia mobsters, crew chiefs for fruit pickers, respected attorneys—and even one Florida governor and the wife of another. This fascinating history covers the role of smuggling in Florida history, including its discovery and settlement, the Seminole Wars, and the Civil War. With stories of land booms, money laundering, drug runners, and more, this is a book that leaves no stone unturned—or suitcase unopened