How the CIA and This Crime Syndicate Imported over 700 Tons — and $50 Billion — of Cocaine (Exclusive)

People think they know everything about the cocaine era of the 1980s. Movies, TV shows and documentaries galore have filled our heads with wild and violent images of chaos and destruction.

IN A face with a scar (1983), Al Pacino as Tony Montana declares, “Say hello to my little friend,” starting a tradition of cocaine-related dramas with a body count higher than numerous international conflicts. In the Netflix series Narcosmass slaughters in nightclubs and restaurants are often filmed in slow motion, with sexy or sometimes ironic music that accentuates the chaos.

When it comes to stories about cocaine, people expect violence, the weirder the better.

‘The Last Kilo’ by TJ English.

William Morrow

Managing these attitudes was a primary concern when I began my research The Last Kilo: Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire That Seduced America (out December 3rd by William Morrow) In the 1980s, Willy Falcon, his brother Gustavo “Tavy” Falcon and their partner Salvatore “Sal” Magluta were the leaders of the cocaine distribution syndicate known as “Los Muchachos”.

This network, made up almost exclusively of Cuban exiles whose families fled Cuba after the Cuban Revolution, created a well-oiled smuggling network consisting of planes, speedboats and semi-tractor trailers based in Miami with outposts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Houston and elsewhere throughout the United States.

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Over a 15-year period — from 1977 to 1992 — Los Muchachos imported 75 tons of pure cocaine with a street value of more than $2.6 billion, according to federal prosecutors. In the interviews I conducted with Falcon for The last kilogramhe claims those numbers are low, estimating that he and his partners imported more than 700 tons of cocaine with a street value in the $50 billion range.

Part of the cocaine is imported by Los Muchachos.

Miami History Museum

And they did all this with a minimum of violence.

There were some murders. In 1992, when Willy and Sal were charged with smuggling and money laundering, there were four murders and numerous attacks that prosecutors believed were carried out by Los Muchachos or someone on their behalf. In order to intimidate and silence potential witnesses, it was assumed that these people were wiped out. This led to explosive headlines in the Miami Herald and on television news, but evidence linking those murders to Willy or Sal was scant. Falcon was never charged with these crimes; Magluta was accused of some of the murders and was found innocent in court.

It turns out that the story from the depths of the cocaine universe is still sharp and fascinating even without the Uzis and Colombian ties. The fact that Los Muchachos carried out their massive smuggling operation with minimal violence in the midst of an undoubtedly violent universe is one of the most unique stories to emerge from the legendary era of cocaine.

Los Muchachos were not only a criminal syndicate, they were also a family.

Collection Falcon

Like many of his generation, Falcon came to the US as a boy as part of the Freedom Flights, a series of planes carrying Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s Cuba in search of a better life. In 1977, Falcon was a popular, charismatic 19-year-old, recently married to his high school sweetheart, when he was approached by Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero, who was a respected leader of the anti-Castro effort.

Quintero and his supervisors in the US intelligence community devised a plan to secretly buy weapons for the Contras, who were trying to prevent the communist Sandinistas from gaining strength in Nicaragua. The plan was to import pure cocaine into the US from sources in Latin America, sell the product in the US and use the money to purchase weapons, ammunition and explosives to be shipped to the Contras in Central America.

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Citing their sense of loyalty as “freedom fighters,” Quintero asked Falcon if he would be able to sell cocaine. These would be sizable shipments (their first shipment was 65 kilograms of pure white powder). He recalled Falcon: “I was flattered that these individuals came to us. . . . If we could help defeat the left-wing Sandinista communists in Central America, we helped defeat Castro.”

“We’re in,” Falcon told Quintero and other militant activists.

The emergence of Los Muchachos as the primary distributor of Colombian cocaine in the US was for a time something that flew under the radar of US law enforcement. Miami Cubans used airplanes, motorboats, and semi-tractor trailers to import and transport large shipments of produce. Los Muchachos, which eventually grew into a network of 40 or 50 drug gangs, benefited from the culture of secrecy fostered by “la lucha,” the Cuban liberation struggle.

Some of Los Muchachos.

Collection Falcon

Although Falcon and his team soon stopped selling kilos for la lucha that they were doing it solely for themselves (although they remained financial benefactors of the anti-Castro underground for years), their origins as Cold War freedom fighters – with direct ties to CIA operatives – became part of their mystique. Los Muchachos were considered untouchable by almost everyone, including the US police.

Falcon ran the organization lightly. He dropped out of high school, like Magluta and the other leaders of the group, but still had impressive leadership skills.

I spent many hours interviewing Falcon in person, via Zoom, and on the phone. He didn’t fit the sociopath or psychopath mold. None of the Los Muchachos members I interviewed – a dozen or so of them – looked like gangsters. These were not hardened criminals who had spent some time in prison when they started the cocaine business. They were young working-class Cuban exiles, most of them married with children and extended families dependent on them. They didn’t get involved in the business not because of a natural inclination to crime, but because, like Falcon, it fell into their laps. The cocaine era was exploding all around them, and they seized it as an opportunity that led them into a world of unfathomable riches.

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They believed they were living the American dream.

With Willy at the helm, Los Muchachos rode the wave of a huge cultural phenomenon. Blow became the party drug of choice from coast to coast, mostly supplied by Cubans from South Florida. With the sound of disco rhythm, yayo or wigas Latin Americans called it, it became de rigueur in modern nightclubs. In addition, the Falcon brothers, Magluta and others at Los Muchachos became speedboat racing champions. The speedboat racing business was a highly effective means of laundering their drug profits, and their dominance of the sport elevated them to celebrity status in the city and beyond.

Willy and Sal’s motorcycle team.

Collection Falcon

But then the war on drugs began. First the Reagan and then George HW Bush administrations supported a massive campaign of unprecedented drug seizures, disruptions and prosecutions. Eventually, Falcon’s organization came to be seen as part of the “narcosphere,” an amorphous, boundless matrix of narco-powers that shaped global politics and the economies of North and South America. “Willy and Sal,” as the conspiracy was characterized in the press, became part of a network that included Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel in Colombia, General Manuel Noriega and the central banking system of the narcosphere in Panama, and drug lords in Mexico, as Los Muchachos moved its shipping routes from the Caribbean islands to the Mexican border.

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Willy and Sal were captured in 1992. Falcon was arrested in Ft. Lauderdale and Sal in Miami Beach. A dedicated group of prosecutors built what appeared to be an overwhelming case. But the two defendants could rely on something prosecutors didn’t fully understand: Willy and Sal’s ability to manipulate a sense of loyalty within South Florida’s Cuban exile community. The narcotics managed to “fix” the jury with not one or two dirty jurors, but five, one of whom said they could rely on her for a guilty verdict without any compensation (the others received payments of roughly $100,000 each). The jury’s acquittal shocked Miami and the US Department of Justice.

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In the end, Falcon reached a plea bargain and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Magluta went to trial and was found guilty, receiving a sentence of 205 years. Tavy Falcon, who evaded arrest at the time of the Los Muchachos indictment, disappeared with his wife and two children and remained at large for 24 years. In 2017, he was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison. His time was cut short by COVID, and he was released to house arrest in 2023.

In my interviews with Falcon and others, it became clear to me that they paid a heavy price for the years they spent as cocaine royalty. Although their prosecutions and convictions for smuggling and money laundering did not involve murder, violence or the usual disorder associated with cocaine plots, they received high sentences. The consequences for these men and their families were severe – marriages were destroyed, and most of them became estranged from their children who grew up without them. At the time I interviewed these people, they were persecuted for screwing up their families’ lives and contributing to a business characterized by addiction, violence and so much destruction.

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However, a few carried a twisted sense of pride in their souls. In a business characterized by murder, mayhem and betrayal, they stayed true to the code. They did not kill people as a matter of practice. They didn’t embezzle people. They did not force their product on anyone. Most importantly, they did not snitch on their fellow Muchachos. They served their time, came out on the other end and dealt with the consequences of the life they chose. They were once the scourge of international forces of order, and now their story has entered the annals of American underworld folklore. There was something to be said for that.

The Last Kilo: Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire That Seduced America by TJ English is out on December 3rd and is available for pre-order now, wherever books are sold.

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Source: HIS Education