Interview by Emily Lopez // Design & Layout by: Chelsea Coolsaet
Modern day pirates were alive and well in this sleepy fishing village of only 524 residents. Their illicit operations were kept under the radar until 1983, when government informants concluded almost two years of infiltration efforts and arrested 125 residents - almost the entire adult male population. “Operation Everglades” also nabbed 14 boats, cars, trucks, two small planes, more than $5 million in property and personal assets, not to mention nearly half a million pounds of marijuana. Most people probably envision a scene right out of Miami Vice, but I wanted to find out what that era was really like. Pulse Magazine sat down with an anonymous Everglades City resident who sailed the high seas during that treacherous time to get his share of the pirate’s booty.
Everglades City during the 1980s.
I moved to Everglades City in the 70s when I was a teenager. Other than living in Naples for a few years, I’ve lived in Everglades City ever since. For me, life in the 80s was good! New cars, nice homes, clothes, jewelry, and the best parties you could imagine. I could go anywhere I wanted at any time, and I always had the best that money could buy.
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What was the extent of your involvement in drug smuggling, and how prevalent was this type of activity throughout the community?
I transported many tons of marijuana from the big ships to the smaller boats that would bring it into Everglades City to be delivered throughout the United States. The whole town was basically involved; a lot of the women were lookouts or listened to the police scanners to learn the whereabouts of local law enforcement. Just about every able man was on the water unloading or transporting the marijuana. When the first big bust was made, you could say that Everglades City turned into a town of women, working and raising their families on their own.
Would you consider the ban on commercial fishing as the catalyst leading to such large scale community involvement in marijuana trafficking?
You know, that really hurt a lot of people. Fishing is all most of these people know; for generation after generation, this is how families supported themselves. The commercial fishing trade is good, honest and hard work, and when it was basically taken away, a lot of families went hungry and lost everything.
Was more local law enforcement involved than what was presented by the media?
Most local law guys were fishermen too, so the ban and restrictions on commercial fishing also affected them. They had to feed their families too. When the big bust happened, there were a few involved that the locals protected so that they would not lose their jobs with the Sheriff’s Department.
Did the “War on Drugs” campaign have any impact? None what-so-ever.
PULSE MAGAZINE ---------- 34 If anything, the “War on Drugs” motivated
us to find different ways to bring more loads in. It really was like a cat and mouse game.
- Anonymous lease provide a brief bio and describe life in
How did the prospect of easy money impact your friends and neighbors?
One day you are faced with how to feed your family, keep a roof over your kids’ heads and shoes on their feet, and the next day someone offers you $10,000 for four hours of work that requires no weapons, violence or stealing. We did what we had to do.
Was everyone involved very discreet, or did people become more materialistic?
At first you would never know that a man walking down Main Street who was wearing mullet boots, cut-off shorts and a shirt with holes was carrying $20,000 in his back pocket. The more people got involved, the more people started bragging and buying things that you couldn’t afford on a fisherman’s pay. The men who looked at hauling as a business tried to cut ties with those braggers. Certain people thought they had it all figured out and tried to do it on their own. They started talking to the wrong people, selling to the wrong people, and eventually brought the law’s attention to Everglades City.
What ended the trafficking on a large scale? Did a specific event end yours?
Well, there got to be more braggers and more greed. My best friend, the man I named my first-born after, ended the marijuana business for me the day he testified against me in court. When I was arrested I didn’t have a weapon or one seed in my possession, but I went to prison for ten years because of his testimony. When the judge handed down my sentence, he said to me, “I am not sending you to prison for what you did, but for what you didn’t do, and that is cooperating with the federal government.” Because I chose not to help the law, I ended up serving every day of my ten year sentence.
How has Everglades City evolved since this decade? Have all the changes been positive?
Nothing positive came out of such a large percentage of the Everglades City population going to jail. The sons and grandsons of those people still have no honest, hardworking jobs in commercial fishing. Our city has really taken a hit and we are still trying to survive.
We’ve all heard the glamorized stories about drug smuggling through Everglades City in the 1980s.
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