How the CIA and This Crime Syndicate Imported over 700 Tons — and $50 Billion — of Cocaine (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

T.J. English and his new book, ‘The Last Kilo’.Photo:William Morrow; Sam Henriques

William Morrow; Sam Henriques

InScarface(1983),Al Pacinoas Tony Montana proclaimed, “Say hello to my little friend,” launching a tradition of cocaine-related dramas with a body count exceeding that of many international conflicts. In the Netflix seriesNarcos, acts of mass slaughter at nightclubs and in restaurants are often filmed in slow motion, with sexy or sometimes ironic music underscoring the mayhem.

When it comes to cocaine stories, people expect violence, the more outlandish the better.

William Morrow

Navigating these attitudes was a primary concern when I began researchingThe Last Kilo: Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire that Seduced America(out Dec. 3 from William Morrow) In the 1980s, Willy Falcon, his brother Gustavo “Tavy” Falcon and their partner Salvatore “Sal” Magluta were the leaders of a cocaine distribution syndicate known as “Los Muchachos.”

This network, made up almost exclusively of Cuban exiles whose families fled Cuba in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, created a well-oiled smuggling network comprised of planes, powerboats and semi-tractor trailers based in Miami with outposts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Houston and elsewhere around the United States.

Over a 15-year period – from 1977 to 1992 – Los Muchachos imported 75 tons of pure cocaine with a street value over $2.6 billion, according to federal prosecutors. In interviews I conducted with Falcon forThe Last Kilo, he contends that those numbers are low, estimating that he and his partners imported more like 700 tons of cocaine with a street value in the $50 billion range.

History Miami Museum

And they did it all with a minimum of violence.

It turns out that a story from deep within the cocaine universe is still edgy and fascinating even without Uzis and Colombian neckties. The fact that Los Muchachos conducted their massive smuggling operation with minimal violence in the midst of what was without doubt, a violent universe, is one of the most unique stories to come out of the fabled cocaine era.

Los Muchachos weren’t just a crime syndicate, they were also a family.Falcon Collection

Falcon Collection

Quintero and his overseers in the U.S. intelligence community had come up with a scheme to secretly purchase weapons for the Contras, who were seeking to stop the communist Sandinistas from gaining traction in Nicaragua. The plan was to import pure cocaine into the U.S. from sources in Latin America, sell the product in the U.S., and use that money to procure guns, ammunition and explosives to be shipped to the Contras in Central America.

Appealing to their sense of loyalty as “freedom fighters,” Quintero asked Falcon if he would be capable of selling the cocaine. These would be sizable shipments (their first load was 65 kilos of pure white powder). Remembered Falcon: “I was flattered that these individuals came to us … If we could help defeat the left-wing Sandinista Communists in Central America, we were helping to defeat Castro.”

“We’re in,” Falcon told Quintero and the other militant activists.

Some of Los Muchachos.Falcon Collection

Falcon presided over the organization with a light touch. A high school drop-out, as were Magluta and other leaders of the group, he nonetheless had impressive leadership skills.

I spent many hours interviewing Falcon in person and via Zoom and on the phone. He did not fit the mold of a sociopath or psychopath. None of the members of Los Muchachos that I interviewed — a dozen or more — seemed like gangsters. These were not hardened criminals who had done time in prison when they started in the cocaine business. They were young, working-class Cuban exiles, most of them married with children and extended families that depended on them. They had become involved in the business not out of a natural inclination towards crime, but because, as with Falcon, it fell into their lap. The cocaine era exploded all around them, and they seized on it as an opportunity, which led them to a world of untold riches.

They believed they were living the American Dream.

Willy and Sal’s powerboating team.Falcon Collection

But then the War on Drugs kicked in. First the Reagan and then George H.W. Bush administrations underwrote a massive, unprecedented campaign of drug seizures, disruption and prosecution. Eventually, Falcon’s organization became seen as part of the “narcosphere,” an amorphous, borderless matrix of narco forces that shaped global politics and economies in North and South America. “Willy and Sal,” as the conspiracy was characterized in the press, became part of a network that included Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel in Colombia, Gen. Manuel Noriega and the narcosphere’s central banking system in Panama, and narco bosses in Mexico, as Los Muchachos shifted their delivery routes from the Caribbean islands to the Mexican border.

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source: people.com