“Cocaine Cowboys” depicted the boom and bust of drug trafficking into the United States in Florida. In the early 60’s it started smuggling marijuana by boat and plane into Florida. Trafficking drugs became a very lucrative business for many people until there was so much marijuana that the profit nearly diminished. With each marijuana package the drug growers would throw in amounts of cocaine for people to try and sell. Cocaine quickly became the new drug of choice. It became so popular that nearly every middle class person in Florida would become weekend drug users. Trafficking drugs soon became a multi million-dollar business. People had very intricate systems for smuggling drugs and for a very long time they were not hassled by the police of DEA. It was not until the late 70’s when the massive amount of drug distributing related deaths did the Florida and United States authorizes began to try and end the drug problem. People began to get caught and their millions were soon slipping from their fingertips. Florida soon lost its major money source and businesses began to close. Although many businesses closed, there was still a lot of money left behind to rebuild much of the infrastructure. South Florida quickly regained its reputations for beautiful beaches, people, and cities.
Recently there have been declassified documents that have surfaced regarding the cocaine smuggling into the United States with regard to the Regan Administration. There had been reports that the contras had used secret arms money, raised by the United States, to use for arms in their drug warehouse. It was also noted that the US government used planes to transport aid to a Nicaraguan Humanitarian Aid Office, which was piloted by a well-known drug smuggler (pg.2). The article confirmed with the movie that Manuel Noriega was laundering drug money through Panama. What was not mentioned in the movie was that the United States was trying to improve his international imagining during this time. It is ironic to think about the Regan administration using money to fund arms for a drug warehouse, help a money-laundering dictator, and secretly be affiliated with other drug trafficking persons, because he had that huge campaign about their “war on drugs”.
“”Pre Columbian” Drug Trafficking in the Americas” discussed the drug producing in the Peru. The process began with peasants in the Andes and quickly became a lucrative business. They begin to distribute in Ecuador and Bolivaian nightclub owners. Peru quickly became the center for the cocaine making and created the “cocaine paste” which helped catapult the cocaine making and distributing in Latin America (Gootenberg 146). During the 1940s Chile was the next country to step up into the cocaine distribution in Latin American and even the United States. It was a cross boarder distribution with Chile and Bolivia. During the 1960 Chile quickly became a dominant distributor of cocaine. Once the United States sought to end communism and Chile began to lean toward democracy, Columbia began to see this as their opportunity to grab hold of the drug trafficking. Cuba, Argentina, Mexico and a few other Latin American countries dabbled in the drug trafficking business but different international politics affected their trade and it was not until Columbia came and monopolized the business into a multi million-dollar trade.
The United States has always been the most important country to import goods to and that was no different with drugs. The United States administrations and foreign drug cartels were able to capitalize on this drug business to create a multi million-dollar illegal drug trafficking business. The United States directly and indirectly affected the drug trade throughout the years with its cold war politics and harsh stance on drugs. It is difficult to think that the government could have aided different cartels that killed hundreds of thousands of people for pride and money. The drug business revolves around making money at any cost, which is a dangerous game to be entangled with. Many people lost their lives while a select few were able to capitalize and play the game right and walk away with millions in blood money.
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