Wednesday 24 March 2010

cocaine cowboys

As I am still off work (hurrah!), I have been sitting around as usual, watching TV and reading. Finished watching the Cocaine Cowboys documentary this afternoon, which was pretty damn interesting. It's about the rise of Miami and how it was related to the smuggling in of cocaine from Columbia, speaking to the police and ex smugglers. The money involved was ridiculous, one of the smugglers estimated he had spent 50 million dollars, and there were many times they just did not know what to do with all the excess money. Once they had bought houses, planes, boats, land racehorses etc, they ended up stashing it anywhere, going so far as to dig holes and bury it for later. Obviously it all went pear shaped, gangs from Cuba got involved, then there were lots of killings and assassinations. It does make you think how much money is enough. The smugglers were clever guys, so you would think they might pack in the trade before getting caught, especially once you have about 50 million. As they admitted, the main thing was the power they had (which the money provided). It all became too addictive, and that was without them doing their own drugs. I like to think I would have got out early and avoided prison, but you never know (I didn't last time). Serving seven years is still not too bad for having that kind of money (if you can do your time without any hassle)
toodle pip

No comments: