Willy Falcon, the most infamous of South Florida’s Cocaine Cowboys during the 1980s, accused of smuggling literally billions of dollars-worth of blow onto American soil from the Caribbean on a fleet of speedboats, was released from almost 20 years in federal prison for money laundering over the weekend…. And promptly picked up by U.S. Immigration officials in order for the government to decide whether the 62-year old former drug don will be deported back to his native Cuba.
Falcon moved to Miami with his family as a young boy in the 1960s and attended Senior High School until he dropped out to push marijuana. In the late 1970s, he teamed with his childhood pal Sal Magluta to form “The Company” and spearheaded the Reagan era coke boom by pumping tens of thousands of kilos (approximately 75 tons) into South Florida over the next dozen years, flooding the city’s burgeoning narcotics market with the help of their partners in the Colombian and Bolivian cartels.
Magluta, also 62, is doing life behind bars. The pair was known in Miami underworld circles as “Los Muchachos,” (“The Boys”) for their young age and ambitious ways. By the start of the 1990s, they were filthy rich and notorious beyond belief.
Los Muchachos and a number of their “Company” henchmen were indicted in a massive 1991 drug conspiracy case. Both Falcon and Magluta were acquitted at a fixed trial in 1996 before being indicted three years later in a money laundering and murder case in which Falcon copped a plea, pleading guilty to hiding and washing his illicit gains, and Magluta got popped by a jury when he decided to roll the dice at another trial.
The judge gave Magluta 250 years, however, an appellate court reduced it to 195. Back in April, Gustavo (Tabby) Falcon, Willie’s 55-year old baby brother, was apprehended by U.S. Marshals after 26 years on the run from the law as a fugitive. He’s pled not guilty to the charges against him and is currently awaiting trial.
According to their 1999 indictment, Falcon and Magluta hired three hitmen to kill a former lawyer of theirs named Juan Acosta, gunned down in the days prior to him being scheduled to take the witness stand in a September 1989 grand jury proceeding. Federal prosecutors think the Acosta slaying was one of three executions and five shootings connected to Falcon and Magluta, per the 1991 indictment.
Many members of The Company, including Falcon and Magluta were world-class and globally-ranked powerboat racers. On most evenings at the height of their power and gangland prestige in the 1980s, Los Muchachos could be found holding court in a private booth at the nightclub located inside the swanky Mutiny Hotel or at the hip night spot, Cat’s, a Coconut Grove disco.
Acclaimed Cocaine Cowboys documentarian Billy Corben is releasing a third sequel in the Cocaine Cowboys franchise next year focusing on Falcon and Magulata’s rise and fall. Per a spokesperson for Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), Falcon will be sent to a detention center in either Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee or Louisiana while the decision on whether to deport him is considered.
