Miami drug war

The Miami drug war was a series of armed conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s, centered in the city of Miami, Florida, between the United States government and multiple drug cartels, primarily the Medellín Cartel. It was predominantly fueled by the illegal trafficking of cocaine.

By 1975, Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel had established cocaine trafficking routes into the US through Miami, superseding the 'Cuban mafia' which had previously controlled drug smuggling in Florida. They were smuggling 40–60 kilograms (88–132 lb) of cocaine to Miami every week via airdrops over the Everglades from small planes, earning around $8 million per month. Miami was well situated to be a hub for cocaine smuggling due to its position in the Caribbean and the widespread use of Spanish. By 1981, Miami was responsible for trafficking 70% of the US's cocaine, 70% of its marijuana, and 90% of its counterfeit Quaaludes.

Major traffickers in Miami at the time include the Falcon brothers and Sal Magluta who smuggled in around $2 billion of cocaine from Colombia, as well as Medellín cartel traffickers Rafael Cardona Salazar, Carlos Lehder, Mickey Munday, Jon Roberts, Griselda Blanco, George Jung, Barry Seal and Max Mermelstein. Much of Miami's drug trafficking activity was centered out of Coconut Grove's Mutiny at Sailboat Bay, where drug traffickers would frequently meet and conduct business.

A shootout at Dadeland Mall on July 11, 1979, started the drug war, although gang-related violence had already been significant in the years beforehand. Two members of a Colombian drug gang entered a liquor store and shot two men in broad daylight. The murderers were quickly dubbed "Cocaine Cowboys" by a police officer. Due to ensuing turf wars between drug lords, Miami soon became known as the "Drug Capital of the World".

Most of the violent crime in Miami during the period was directly related to conflicts in the city's growing drug trade. In 1979, there were 349 murders in Miami. The next year, the city had 573 murders and the year after that, it had 621 murders. By 1981, the city morgue had an overload of dead bodies and was forced to rent out a refrigerated truck in which to keep them, using it until 1988. Crime in Miami had become so rampant that journalist Roben Farzad argues that the city was a failed state. Dade County had 425 murders in 1984 (23.7 per 100,000 residents) making it the "murder capital" of the US.

Griselda Blanco was reportedly responsible for most of the murders in South Florida between 1979 and 1981. She was suspected to be behind at least 40 murders, but possibly connected to as many as 200. Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, one of Blanco's hitmen, pled guilty to three murders in 1993 but is believed to be responsible for around three dozen killings during the drug wars.

Police corruption was a problem in Miami during the period. This was fuelled by a "virtual hiring frenzy" in the Miami Police Department in 1981 and 1982 when 714 officers were hired, more than doubling the force's size by relaxing screening standards. At one point in 1987, 100 of Miami's 1,060 police officers had been or were under investigation on corruption-related matters.

The Miami River Cops Scandal was an incident where a group of 19 police officers were convicted of various state and federal crimes including murder, racketeering, robbery, drug possession, civil rights violations and conspiracy charges. Upon conviction, the officers were given prison sentences averaging 23 years.