Miami Drug War

The Miami Drug War was a series of armed conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s, centered in the Florida city of Miami, between the United States government and multiple drug cartels, primarily the Medellín Cartel.

Miami Drug War
Part of War on Drugs
Date 1970s - 1980s Location Miami, Florida Status Medellin Cartel collapsed
Belligerents
United States DEA FBI Miami Police Department	Drug cartels Medellín Cartel Colombian gangs
Commanders and leaders
Ronald Reagan	Griselda Blanco Pablo Escobar Jorge "Rivi" Ayala Mickey Munday Barry Seal Luis Fernando Arcila Mejia

The drug war was triggered by the 1979 Dadeland Mall shootout; in broad daylight, two gunmen of a Colombian drug gang entered and shot two men at a liquor store. The murderers were immediately dubbed "Cocaine Cowboys" by a police officer.[1] Violence began to become endemic in Miami. In 1980 the city had 573 murders in the year, and the next year had 621 murders. By 1981 the city morgue had an overload of dead bodies and had to rent out a refrigerated truck to keep the bodies, keeping it until 1988.[2] Most of the violent crime was directly related to conflicts in the city's growing drug trade. Miami in 1981 was responsible for trafficking 70% of the country's cocaine, 70% of the country's marijuana, and 90% of the country's counterfeit Quaaludes.[3]

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. By 1981 crime in Miami had become so rampant from the cocaine trade that journalist Roben Farzad argues Miami was a failed state.[4] During the time major traffickers like the Falcon brothers and Sal Magluta smuggled in around 2 billion dollars of cocaine from Colombia. Medellin cartel traffickers Mickey Munday, Jon Roberts, Griselda Blanco and Max Mermelstein brought in loads of drugs from Colombia with the help of Jorge "Rivi" Ayala as a hitman responsible for around three dozen murders.[5]

Miami soon became known as the "Drug Capital of the World" due to ensuing turf wars between drug lords.[6] One of the top leaders of drug trafficking in Miami was Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco, who was a pioneer in cocaine trafficking and was responsible for more than 200 murders.[7] With the collapse of the Medellin Cartel and various other drug trafficking organizations, the drug war diminished.