Special Series - Smuggling
News > 2012 > Special Series-Smuggling > Introduction
Florida: A Red State with the Smuggler's Blues - INTRODUCTION
by Rob Phillips April 2012
In a darkened West Wing office late in 1971, the Richard Nixon Administration officially began a war that continues to this very day.
This conflict was something that had no clear adversary, no uniformed enemy combatants, nor clear lines of battle. What was evident to the government was that these enemies were entering the United States at an alarming rate and a declared war was certainly needed to deal with this ever-growing problem.
While the Nixon administration was able to apply a shiny new label to this war and begin to allot millions of dollars in its campaign, this endeavor was nothing new. Since 1914, the United States government had identified this enemy and their actions, but had only taken a minor stand in defeating this apparently dark element. It seemed that it only took an electorate-conscious president, a Mont-Blanc pen and endless dollars to bring the “War on Drugs” to the focal point in American society.
This newly coined War on Drugs directed American resources across the world and even saw the birth of the war’s newest federal participant, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973. This war had many blurry fronts that saw American interests directed to remote jungles, arid deserts and sprawling urban areas in the quest for the eradication of this identified scourge upon the American citizenry.
Despite the millions of dollars that were being used to destroy the drug trade in all corners of the globe, a place existed that had hundreds of years’ head start on the Federal government and all its recent efforts. For years, this location had been a delivery point for all types of illegal affairs and its coastline seemingly beckoned those willing to risk it all for that elusive easy payday. Even today, this spot on the map continues to conceal her illicit citizenry who continue to alter their methods and products in the ever changing vocation of smuggling. This innocent and tranquil place where smuggling was practiced and ultimately perfected is of course, the great State of Florida.
Bootlegging, Square Groupers, The Cocaine Smugglers, Human Trafficking |
