‘Cocaine Cowboy' Gustavo Falcon, Captured After 26 Years, Pleads Guilty Thursday
•
After more than 25 years on the run, the last “Cocaine Cowboy” is facing justice. NBC 6’s Steve Litz reports.
What to Know
Gustavo Falcon vanished in 1991 when he was charged along with his older brother Augusto "Willie" Falcon and others.
Falcon was arrested by U.S. Marshals in April near Orlando, where he lived under an alias with his wife.
He previously pleaded not guilty to a 1991 indictment charging him in a major cocaine smuggling operation during the 1980s.
The so-called last of Miami's "cocaine cowboys," a man who hid from the law for 26 years, has pled guilty to a decades-old drug charge.
In a Miami federal court, 56-year-old Gustavo Falcon entered the plea to a 1991 indictment charging him in a major cocaine smuggling operation during the 1980s. Falcon had previously entered a not guilty plea on the charge.
Falcon faces up to 20 years behind bars and will be sentenced on April 11th. Judge Federico Moreno told those inside the courtroom he has to contemplate an appropriate sentence.
“I have no idea what I’m going to do. I had forgotten about this case before they seized you,” he said.
Miami-Dade Corrections
Griselda Blanco, known as the Cocaine Godmother, was a part of the Medellin Cartel and one of the first Colombian women to traffic cocaine into the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Blanco, who featured prominently in the "Cocaine Cowboys" documentaries, was a major figure in the violent Miami drug war in the 80s and served more than a decade in prison before she was released in 2004 and deported back to Colombia. Blanco was shot and killed in Colombia in 2012.
Florida Department of Corrections
Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, a hitman for Blanco, was interviewed from prison for the "Cocaine Cowboys" documentary. He pleaded guilty in three killings in 1993, but is believed to be responsible for some three dozen murders during the 80s drug war.
NBC 6
Mickey Munday, who also became somewhat of a star after the release of "Cocaine Cowboys," was a drug smuggler for the Medellin Cartel and drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s. Munday flew loads of drugs into South Florida from Colombia, and served nearly nine years in federal prison. He's currently headed to trial in an auto fraud case.
Lynn Police
Mickey Munday still lives in the Miami area, and even sat down with NBC 6 in 2013 to talk about his old smuggling days.
Orange County Sheriff's Office
Gustavo Falcon is the brother of renowned drug smuggler Augusto "Willie" Falcon who, along with Willie's partner Sal Magluta, were indicted in 1991 for trafficking cocaine on speedboats from Colombia to South Florida during the 1980s. Prosecutors said the group brought about $2 billion in cocaine into Miami. He was arrested last year in Orlando after about 26 years on the run.
FBI
Augusto "Willy" Falcon, in an undated photo. Falcon was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003 after making a deal with the government. He was released last year but taken into ICE custody.
U.S. Marshals
Mario Gonzalez spent nearly two decades behind bars following a shootout with police in the mid-1990’s. He was arrested this month in Miami-Dade on a warrant for a case out of New York.
Falcon vanished in 1991 when he was charged along with his older brother Augusto "Willie" Falcon, Salvador "Sal" Magluta and others. Prosecutors say the gang purportedly smuggled at least 75 tons of cocaine into California and made some $2 billion in the hyper-violent "Miami Vice" era, loading the drug in tractor trailers and taking it around the country to sell.
