WILL AMERICA'S NEW OBSESSION WITH MIAMI'S 1980s COCAINE CRIME STORIES OPEN A PANDORA'S BOX FROM AN ERA OF UNCONTROLLED MONEY LAUNDERING?

Popular American interest, generated after a number of recent films on the subject have appeared, and been well received, has focused the attention of viewers on the dark, drug-infested "Miami Vice" era of the 1980s. Previous audiences have, in the past, been fixated on programs covering such prior lawless periods, such as the gangsters of Prohibition in the 1920s, and the American Mafia. After a sufficient amount of time elapses after such eras, interest about such stories when they appear as films, on the part of people who did not personally experience such tumultuous periods, tends to increase; Call it curiosity, albeit sometimes of a morbid nature.

Miami, during the period of the eighties, was a chaotic time punctuated by the Mariel Boatlift, rampant and systemic drug trafficking, corruption in local government, and a desperate effort by American law enforcement to rein in the flood of illicit drugs, especially cocaine. Traffickers depended upon a number of Miami professionals, including many lawyers, to launder their criminal proceeds, and protect them from the law. One only need look at the long list of lawyers whose criminal convictions resulted in the loss of their law licenses during that period to verify that; I was one of those individuals, which I have detailed in "The Laundry Man."

My point is that all this renewed interest in all things Miami 1980 may shed some sunlight upon Miami money laundering operations that were never exposed, and that certain people who have worked very hard to conceal their dodgy past, the significant wealth and assets they earned during those years, and the banks that facilitated such crimes, may now see the light of day. For any who believe that the Statute of Limitations bars their arrest, our conspiracy laws might just be able to reach out and touch them in the present. Retired drug traffickers, having served long sentences, and at the end of their lives, can be brutally honest about their experiences, as we have seen from some of the documentaries.

Whether Miami stories appearing in 2025 will see publicity, and perhaps even accountability, for misdeeds committed in 1985 remains to be seen, but be assured many who were there back in the day, and presently wish that their past remain buried, may experience otherwise.