In January 1981, Martha Falcon, the mother of “Cocaine Cowboy” Willy Falcon, was kidnapped with a $500,000 ransom demanded for her release, as TJ English explains in “The Last Kilo: Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire That Seduced America ” (William Morrow, out now).
For Falcon, the head of Miami’s Los Muchachos drug traffickers, money was irrelevant.
“In the larger scheme of cocaine profits, it was a big difference,” he writes. “But something else was at work, something ominous and diabolical.”
He had reason to worry.
A month earlier, an associate of Falcon was kidnapped by the same people and when the ransom was not paid, “they killed the victim of the kidnapping, cut off his testicles and put them in his mouth”, writes English.
While Marta Falcon was released unharmed, it was a stark reminder of the dangers involved in the drug trade – even though the Falcon operation never used violence, preferring corruption to maintain their place in the “narcosphere”.
“Dirty cops, lawyers, judges and politicians feeding off the profits of the narcosphere is what made the world go round,” English writes. “It existed at every level of business, in every country, state, and city where pounds of coke passed through grubby hands on its way up and up the consumer’s nostrils.”
During the 1970s and 1980s, Falcon and Salvador “Sal” Magluta perfected the cocaine trade.
When they were caught in 1991, prosecutors estimated that Los Muchachos had imported seventy-five tons of pure cocaine into America, although Falcon believed it was closer to 700, with a value of $50 billion.
“This made them the leading smugglers of cocaine during a period when the product, if it were a legal commodity, would have dominated the New York Stock Exchange,” English says.
“The Last Kilo” is based on interviews in English conducted with Augusto Guillermo “Willy” Falcon after his release from prison in 2017 after a 27-year sentence.
Magluta was not available.
“He was incarcerated, serving a 195-year sentence for cocaine trafficking, obstruction of justice and money laundering charges — the same charges that ensnared Falcon,” English writes.
In 1967, the Falcon family fled Cuba during the revolution when Willy was only eleven years old, settling in ‘Little Havana’ in Miami.
Within a few years, he would be in a hurry when the burgeoning cocaine market caught his eye.
His first deal in 1976 earned him and then partner, Tony Bemba, a $700,000 profit.
When he teamed up with fellow HS dropout from Miami, Magluta, their business went into the stratosphere.
By the time they dropped their fourth shipment in 1977, they had cleared $2.5 million from that single deal alone.
By 1983, demand for cocaine was insatiable.
It wasn’t just the high wheels that were enjoying themselves, but lawyers, real estate agents, politicians and police officers too – and the Falcon was making $100 million a year.
“Cocaine broke down inhibitions and made revelers take to it,” English explains. “For a while, Falcon and those like him became stars in their own right. “They were the saviors of the good times.”
Los Muchachos bought airplanes, built airstrips in rural Florida, and developed their impenetrable shortwave radio communication system.
Later, they worked the West Coast, driving 100-pound loads from Florida to Los Angeles and San Francisco. They even dealt with notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, who nicknamed Falcon ‘The Doctor’ because he cured his distribution problems.
In the mid-1980s, Falcon moved to New York, where a new drug—crack—threatened the profitability and, ironically, the reputation of his operation.
“It was no longer about speedboats, women in bikinis and disco balls,” says English. “Good times had taken a dark turn.”
The long war on drugs, launched by President Nixon in 1971, complicated matters.
After spending $47 billion, Congress appropriated an additional $11 billion for it. “The war against drugs entered a new phase; it was an orchestrated propaganda war,” says English. “Cocaine traffickers were seen more as merchants of death and destruction — and un-American.”
For the first time, the pair discussed quitting cocaine. But the business had become a commercial juggernaut with thousands in South America and the US addicted to it. “The loophole could not simply be closed without immediate and severe consequences,” English says.
Flush with cash, they poured money into more legitimate concerns. They started construction companies and bought a farm and ranch, with their own private airstrip. And they enjoyed motorboating, winning numerous races with their ‘Seahawk’ team.
Magluta was even on the committee that oversees the American Power Boat Association.
“They were the kings of their domain,” English adds.
But in October 1991, they were finally caught. Magluta was first captured when a 25-man team from the US Marshals Service entered his palatial home on La Gorce Island. Five hours later, Falcon’s Fort Lauderdale residence was raided, and as he was arrested, Falcon yelled, “F–k you bitches!”
As well as $1 million in cash and gold bullion, the raids yielded fake driver’s licenses and passports, illegal firearms and, critically, records detailing financial transactions.
It’s game over for Los Muchachos. “After years of investigation, English writes, they finally got the tiger by the tail.
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