1980s Miami – Riots, Drug Wars & Corruption

The Real Miami Vice

Miami has always been a different kind of American city. For an outsider, it feels more like visiting a Latin American country. It seems like everyone is of hispanic decent and speaks Spanish. The culture is different, the food is amazing, the music has more passion, and the vibe is always electric. During the 1980s, it was also a place that would become the most dangerous city in the United States according to the FBI. Just how different was this city? During a national recession in which every American city struggled, President Ronald Reagan requested the FBI to investigate why Miami didn’t seem affected by the recession. Sales of luxury condos, Rolex watches, and Lamborghinis and Ferraris were thriving while they came to a near halt in other major cities. One year, the Federal Reserve in Miami collected a $5 Billion surplus, far more than the rest of the Federal Reserves combined.

1980 Miami Race Riots

A week prior to christmas in 1979, four police officers ensued in a high speed car chase to pull over over 33 year old Arthur McDuffie, and eventually will beat the man down. A Miami based salesman, and former Marine, McDuffie would die at the hospital from injuries received from the police officers. During the trail, it was confirmed that his head was cracked open like an egg, having sustained multiple skull fractures. After an all-white jury acquitted the four police officers, the riots will emerge in the Overtown and Liberty City areas of Miami. Florida Governor Bob Graham would send in the National Guard, only to have the riots continue. Curfews were ignored, and widespread destruction of small businesses affected many. These were the deadliest and costliest riots in US history up until the 1992 Race Riots that broke out in Los Angeles after the video surfaced of the police beating down Rodney King. This would mark the beginning of a very scary decade in South Florida’s history.

Cocaine And The Mariel Boatlift

In the 1970s, the only major drug being exported int the United States was marijuana. Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel would change all this. At his peak, his cartel would provide 80% of the cocaine imported into the United States. Making around $60 million a day, it is believed Escobar’s net worth was around $3o Billion at the time of his death in 1993 after a shootout with Colombian National Police. But who would help push all the drugs coming out of Colombia into the United States? Insert the Mariel Boatlift out of Cuba straight to Miami. 125,000 immigrants escaping the misery of communism under the brutal dictatorship of Fidel Castro, find themselves in the United States. Jobs and housing is very limited in Miami during this time. Some look for any opportunity to achieve the American dream. This was a match made in criminal heaven.

A Bloody Decade In The Sunshine State

After the 1980s started with a deadly riots, and a massive influx of Cuban refugees exiled to Miami, and the rise of a cocaine empire in Colombia, the writing was on the walls for disaster. With Colombians pushing the drugs to the coast of Florida via boats and planes, Cubans would be the boots on the ground selling it. There was so much money being made, that many drug lords rose, and deadly competition would ensue. Things reached a high point when Griselda Blanco, the godmother of Cocaine, would leave Colombia and return to Miami. She was fierce and deadly with competition, making sure any rival gangs were crushed immediately. It was common to hear on the news of shoot outs in broad daylight between different drug gangs. The term Cocaine Cowboys was officially coined. Things would eventually get so bad, that the city of Miami did not have enough space in their morgues to house dead bodies. The medical examiners would have to rent ice trucks to keep cadavers refrigerated, a common sight in the city during those times. This practice endured until 1988. After nearly 1,200 drug related murders in the span of the summer of 1980 and summer of 1981, Time Magazine would write a piece stated that Miami was a paradise lost. Add to the mix a large volume of crooked cops paid off by the drug cartels, and high level officials that looked the other way, Miami was also the corruption capital of the United States as well as the Cocaine capital.

How The Wild Wild West Was Won

Miami received much national attention from the media in the 1980s. Broad daylight shootings in front of Dadeland mall, large seizures of cocaine valued over $100 million at Miami International Airport and Port of Miami at any given time, and the sudden rise of skyscrapers in the Downtown area was enough to stir the pot. In just 1985, the US would seize $9 Billion worth of cocaine in Miami, more than twice the annual amount seized in the entire United States. The United States government will no longer ignore the violence produced by Colombian Drug traffickers and Cuban Marielitos. Miami Dade would create a special tactical narcotics unit. Together with the DEA and FBI, they would take many years but eventually bring an end to the drug wars that plagued the city during the 80s. By 1989, Miami was still the Cocaine Capital, but the drug wars had been halted and homicides were much lower. This will allow Miami to eventually thrive as a global city and important trade hub for Latin America.