Sal Magluta (with glasses) & Willy Falcon created an illegal's drugs empire in Miami 1980 - 1991 Photo courtesy: Netflix
Salvador "Sal" Magluta was born November 5, 1954 in Cuba. He was raised in Miami, Florida, attending local schooling for primary studies. Sal enrolled himself in Miami Senior Hugh, dropping out midway of pursuing his education. He had met Willy Falcon and left school to enter the business of smuggling and drug dealing.
Initially, they primarily dealt with Marijuana. However, during the mid-1970s, they switched to Cocaine. Malguta was the plan maker, and Falcon would crack the deal. They found better luck in that system as Willy was more charismatic.
Augusto Guillermo "Willy" Falcon was born September 1, 1955, in Cuba, a former drug kingpin who, along with his partner Sal Magluta, operated one of the most significant cocaine trafficking organizations in South Florida history. Falcon also moved to Miami from Cuba, transferring from a private school in Cuba to Miami Senior High, where he would meet Sal and drop out with him.
They mainly dealt drugs in South Florida, cracking the deals himself while Sal made plans. They transported Cocaine primarily via boats or planes and opened a route for smuggling in Mexico.
Augusto Falcon and Salvador Magluta were Miami High dropout friends when they emigrated from Cuba and lived their American dream in the 1980s. Federal authorities found that "Willy" and "Sal," who became famous as speedboat racing champions, got their fast cash smuggling 75 tons of Cocaine worth $2.1 billion into the United States from 1978 to 1991. Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta, both 40, lived in elegant houses, invested in prime South Florida real estate, and, according to prosecutors, laundered millions of dollars in drug money via dozens of offshore businesses and banks.
Will Lester from AP NEWS stated that the prosecution case "promised a not-so-nostalgic tour through Miami's famed drug culture in the late 1970s and early 1980s." When Colombian "cocaine cowboys" carried automatic guns around the streets and shopping malls, banks were propped up with drug money laundered, and the cocaine innovators lived like sporting kings.
Sal's Boat, Seahawk
Falcon, who raced under the team name "Cougar,″ and Magluta, whose team name was "Seahawk,″ cut dashing figures on the powerboat racing circuit as they celebrated victories, dined at the finest restaurants, and helped sponsor races in South Florida. Sal participated in many races, winning three national championships. Malguta was a distinguished member of the American Power Boat Association Commission. In fact, Willy enjoyed the sport as well. Often taking part in group races and won many of them alongside Sal Malguta.
Willy's Boat, Cougar
The Miami drug war was a series of armed battles between the United States government and several drug cartels in the 1970s and 1980s. It was centered in the Florida city of Miami, where the majority of violent crime was directly connected to disputes in the city's expanding drug trade.
By 1981 crime in Miami had become so rampant from the cocaine trade some journalists argued that Miami was a failed state. During the time, Wikipedia explains that "significant traffickers like the Falcon brothers and Sal Magluta smuggled in around 2 billion dollars of Cocaine from Colombia." Miami soon became known as the "Drug Capital of the World" due to ensuing turf wars between drug lords.
The 1980s saw an influx of Cubans years after the country was closed by the authorities. The event, what was later known as "The Mariel boatlift," took place when the Cuban authorities allowed anyone who had family in Miami to leave. This was also used by the dictatorship to expel common criminals out of jail and place them on those boats as a condition to leave the island.
The Mariel Boat lift
This gave rise to more crimes in Miami, also fueled by the drug trade. This crime-ridden Miami and the drug trade was an inspiration to the movie Scarface, even though most Cubans were decent and hard-working people, the movie had added fuel to the stigma and racism in Miami during those days.
I personally know many people who came during the Mariel boatlift who had never had issues with the law and had lived an exemplary live contributing proudly to this country who had given them opportunities.
In 1996, the New York Times published a paper about the possible connections between the Cuban Government and the drug trade. They showed that in 1980 and 1981, a Cuban defector alerted Federal and New York State law enforcement officers that operatives of the Cuban government engaged in drugs trafficking in the New York metropolitan region and Florida.
The defector, Mario Estebes Gonzalez, was convicted on narcotics charges 16 months before the article was published. The report stated that Mr. Estebes had said that his "chief mission on behalf of the Cuban Government was to distribute Cocaine, Marijuana, and methaqualone tablets in New York, northern New Jersey, and Florida."
He declared that he delivered between $2 million and $3 million to Cuban officials from proceeds of drug trafficking in the United States in 15 months.
A DEFECTOR TELLS OF DRUG DEALING BY CUBA AGENTS - The New York Times
In July of 1989, LA Times reported on the sentencing of a Cuban General. A military tribunal sentenced General Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez to death on July 13, 1989. The article described Ochoa as "a highly decorated three-star general who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution." The general and three others are accused of drug smuggling and corruption. Eduardo Diaz, Antonio Sanchez, Alexis Lago, Miguel Ruiz, Rosa Maria Abierno, and De la Guardia's brother Patricio, a general, were all sentenced to 30 years in prison for drug smuggling. The scandal led to the dismissal of the interior minister and the head of commercial air traffic control. Defense Minister Raul Castro, brother of the Cuban leader, was among those who testified for the prosecution. The House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman says he discussed drug smuggling with Cuban President Raul Castro last year. This all led the State Department to investigate Cuba's failure to cooperate in combatting drug shipments from the United States and other countries.
General Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez
After Los Muchachos were arrested in 1991 they hired a topnotch team of lawyers, the best of the beast at the time it included Roy Black, martin Weinberg and Albert Krieger. After just 3 days of deliberations the result came back as " Not guilty on all counts."
On 1996 The Miami New times featured an article from their journalist Jim DeFEDE with the details of the first trial won by the top notch team of lawyers Sal Magluta and Willy Falcon employed in their defense. Jim DeFEDE its an award-winning journalist in Miami. Currently working for the Miami Herald.
Writes DeFede:
"... Agents were drawn from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Marshal's Office, and U.S. Customs, as well as state and local police agencies from Miami to Los Angeles. Information was gathered from informants and sources in at least half a dozen different countries. It was the largest drug-trafficking case ever to be lost by prosecutors in the state of Florida, and it may well be the biggest narcotics case ever lost in the United States. "A dark moment," U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said of the defeat..."
Read the whole article about their trial here.
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