I just got done watching a documentary about the drug (specifically cocaine) traffic in Miami in the late 70’s/early 80’s called Cocaine Cowboys. It’s absolutely mind-boggling the impact that the drug had on the city. There was so much cash involved that banks in MIami went from dealing with on average $12 million annually with the federal reserve, to $600 million cash. A 5000% increase!! Whole sections of the town’s business survived on not only the money itself, but the type of clients that the money brought in, so when the trade went bust, so did the town.
The face of Miami was literally changed by cocaine. They suspect that an insane 85% of urban development was in some way shape or form funded by drug money during the city’s rapid 1980’s growth.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Cocaine Cowboys is a great movie. The sequel, Cocaine Cowboys 2 - Hustlin With The Godmother, focuses around Griselda Blanco, Rivi (the enforcer/hitman) and a character named Charles Cosby. There is an advance screening June 20, 2008 at the CineVegas Film Festival and this time around the documentary has worldwide distribution checkout http://www.charlescosby.com for some pictures of Griselda Blanco and Charles Cosby.