Speaker 1: Murder in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio. In this
Speaker 1: week's special Bonus, I wanted to share a little bit
Speaker 1: of a personal and cultural timeline and some interesting perspective
Speaker 1: from a smuggler not linked to Miami or the Coconut
Speaker 1: Grove guys. Bill Stamford's introduction to drug smuggling Miami style
Speaker 1: would occur nearly a decade after Nixon announced his offensive
Speaker 1: against drug addiction, and the nineteen eighties would see his
Speaker 1: mission morph into an outright declaration of war, with Reagan's
Speaker 1: White House and his crusading First Lady leading the charge.
Speaker 1: Nancy Reagan and I answered say no, but not everyone
Speaker 1: across the country was just saying no. My introduction to
Speaker 1: cocaine came very early on and lived in infamy when
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty I learned through my parents' hissed and
Speaker 1: hush tones, that our neighbor had been convicted, along with
Speaker 1: his two brother in laws, of buying nineteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: worth of cocaine from a federal narcotics agent posing as
Speaker 1: a drug dealer. One of those brother in laws millionaire
Speaker 1: movie producer Robert Evans. Because Evan's film credits included movies
Speaker 1: like The Godfather and Rosemary's Baby. His privileged punishment was
Speaker 1: to be placed on special probation for a year and
Speaker 1: tasked with using his skills as a producer to address
Speaker 1: the nation's growing narcotics problem. The result one of the
Speaker 1: most notorious and some might argue cringy anti drug TV
Speaker 1: specials of the nineteen eighties and maybe ever Titled Get
Speaker 1: High on Yourself, it starred a staggering number of celebrities
Speaker 1: like Muhammad Ali, Paul Newman, Carol Burnett, Magic Johnson, John Travalta,
Speaker 1: and Burt Reynolds, and is well worth a google and
Speaker 1: perhaps a giggle. But drugs had already proved a profitable pastime,
Speaker 1: and as with the nation's previous attempt to go dry
Speaker 1: with prohibition, the war on drugs actually increased their value
Speaker 1: and the potential for corruption.
Speaker 2: It just brings out the evil and provision and just
Speaker 2: creates so many problems in more than it ever prevents.
Speaker 1: That's mister Jerry Lee Wilson. He's a former marijuana smuggler
Speaker 1: who was based out West which is where he linked
Speaker 1: with Phil Stamford, who profiled him for a magazine article.
Speaker 1: A quick aside mister Wilson is also the mastermind and
Speaker 1: inventor behind Soloflex, the groundbreaking machine that forever revolutionized home
Speaker 1: fitness in the nineteen eighties and created the world's first
Speaker 1: infomercial that sold it, along with the no Pain, No
Speaker 1: Gain Body by Solaflex print campaign featuring that iconic shirtless
Speaker 1: male model with impeccable pecks and abs. Wilson's a fascinating guy.
Speaker 1: We're dealing with the story of nineteen eighties Miami as
Speaker 1: it switched from pot to cocaine. But just the corruption,
Speaker 1: it's fascinating that prohibition just breeds corruption and crime.
Speaker 2: Well in the eye, it breeds opportunity. There's so much
Speaker 2: opportunity for you know, on both sides of the fence.
Speaker 2: But it did open up an economic opportunity.
Speaker 1: Before he'd make millions with sola Flex, Jerry was jailed
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma facing bail to the tune of a half
Speaker 1: a million dollars for flying in quote the largest load
Speaker 1: of pot in history unquote. Here's how he got there.
Speaker 1: So tell me how you fell into smuggling.
Speaker 2: I never really wanted to have to work for a living,
Speaker 2: you know, because I'd tried work several times I never
Speaker 2: paid much and it was hard. And then I got
Speaker 2: to thinking, maybe I should just become a pilot. That
Speaker 2: didn't seem like work at all, and so that's what
Speaker 2: I did. I mean, I just loved anything it get
Speaker 2: up off the ground. And so that's what I did
Speaker 2: for twelve years, is I slip professionally. Five of the
Speaker 2: years I flew the night airmail up to Tornado Alley
Speaker 2: without a radar. That was pretty scary. And then I
Speaker 2: got a job flying lar jets in Las Vegas, where
Speaker 2: I got to meet all the mafia guys that I
Speaker 2: read about. One of them was an attorney from El
Speaker 2: Paso and a gambler and the Torres gambler and a
Speaker 2: high roller, big steaks gambler and a big tipper. But
Speaker 2: I started flying him, shuttling him back and forth between
Speaker 2: El Paso and Las Vegas. And then I got a
Speaker 2: charter from his younger brother, who I hadn't met yet,
Speaker 2: to just fly back east, you know, with only one
Speaker 2: passenger on board. And they wouldn't even tell me where
Speaker 2: we were going, you know. And then actually I was
Speaker 2: going out to collect cash, heart currency and buckets and
Speaker 2: big steamship trunks full of just cash that I would
Speaker 2: bring back and they would take the caesars and they'd
Speaker 2: weigh it when they'd get credit on books. But these
Speaker 2: guys were the younger brother was a smuggler, marijuana smuggler.
Speaker 2: I got a call to go down and pick up
Speaker 2: a Lee Shagger and al Paso, and so I was
Speaker 2: waiting at the airport. He was usually laid but been
Speaker 2: there about an hour. My co boughted me. Then here
Speaker 2: comes Jimmy, and it was the first time I had
Speaker 2: met his younger brother, the actual smuggler, And so he says,
Speaker 2: Lee's looking for some pilots, and I thought, damn, that
Speaker 2: sounded like a lot of fun for one thing, and
Speaker 2: maybe the little credie and there's certainly nothing wrong with
Speaker 2: it that I could see, And so I went to
Speaker 2: work for him.
Speaker 1: But Jerry Lee Wilson would eventually find himself on the
Speaker 1: wrong side of the law and at odds with the
Speaker 1: cops who arrested him, who were also on the wrong
Speaker 1: side of the law.
Speaker 2: No, I was finding myself in jail, you know, and
Speaker 2: the cops having stolen all with dope.
Speaker 1: That happens more than one would think, but just explained.
Speaker 2: So well by the cops are not stupid. You know,
Speaker 2: there's you know how valuable it is. They also know
Speaker 2: every dealer in the area. You know, I mean, I
Speaker 2: get to the natural connection to sell it. You know,
Speaker 2: there was a dege in Albuquerque that got busted selling
Speaker 2: the same uh load of pot hit hit hit busted
Speaker 2: and then resell it and get and bust it and
Speaker 2: resell it. You know, that breeds opportunities on both sides
Speaker 2: of the de fence. You know, cops don't get paid
Speaker 2: that much, and they all think they're overworked and you know, harassed.
Speaker 2: I had a Treasury agent said once, you know, he
Speaker 2: said my balls were a little bigger, you know, I'd
Speaker 2: be doing what you're doing. Yeah, And it's like, well, hey,
Speaker 2: what can I say? Get some balls man.
Speaker 1: Jerry shares many of his smuggling adventures and innovations in
Speaker 1: his autobiography The Solo Flex Story, an American parable, which
Speaker 1: Wilson cleverly dedicates to the Statute of Limitations. It is
Speaker 1: a great read. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get the stories
Speaker 1: that matter to you.