In an extraordinary account of crime, consequence, and redemption, a former cocaine smuggler who once operated under the shadow of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar is opening up about the double life he led during the height of the U.S. drug war in the 1980s — and why he’s now dedicating his final years to preventing others from following in his footsteps.
The man, now 73 and living quietly after serving 13 years in federal prison, revealed that he once earned nearly $100 million a month smuggling cocaine into South Florida.
At the height of his illegal empire, he owned 30 aircraft, multiple mansions, a fleet of luxury cars, and even a pet mountain lion named Top Cat — all while publicly operating the largest Lamborghini dealership in the United States.
But his success, he says, was built on desperation, deception, and the devastating collapse of a dream rooted in family obligation.
The Making of a Drug Pilot
Born in Cuba in 1952, the smuggler described a privileged start — the son of a senator who later became a successful real estate developer after the family fled to Florida following Fidel Castro’s rise. By 19, he was mourning the loss of his father and grappling with the weight of a promise to complete a sugar mill project in Haiti his father had started.
When a con artist duped him out of $100,000 in a fake loan deal, his financial world spiraled. With creditors closing in, he turned to drug trafficking — first marijuana, then eventually, cocaine. After learning to fly his own plane to source drugs from Colombia, he gained notoriety for never losing a shipment, a reputation that caught Escobar’s attention in 1983.
After meeting in the Colombian jungle, Escobar offered him $5 million to fly 1,000 kilos of cocaine into the U.S. That arrangement soon evolved into a standing contract: weekly flights, cocaine as payment, and vast sums earned through sales in Miami and beyond.
Federal Indictment and Imprisonment
The façade collapsed in April 1988 when federal agents raided his home and arrested him.
“I thought to myself, ‘How the hell did I get here?’” he recalled. In 1991, he pled guilty to multiple felony counts, including cocaine and marijuana distribution and money laundering.
The sentence: 13 years in federal prison.
The conviction revealed the duality of his life to stunned family and friends.
“There was the ‘good me’ they knew, and the ‘cocaine kingpin me’ they didn’t,” he explained. “I kept those worlds completely separate. But after my arrest, only one version remained.”
A Message to the Next Generation
Today, the former smuggler is focused on educating youth through public speaking and his forthcoming podcast, Cocaine Air. The aim: to steer others away from crime by recounting how a single bad decision in his teens triggered a chain of catastrophic choices.
“If I could do it all over again, I would,” he said. “But I truly believe there’s no mess that can’t be cleaned up.”
Despite his past, he maintains his love for Lamborghinis, but now his mission is service, not smuggling. “I want to have a positive impact. That’s how I want to spend the rest of my time.”
