Last ‘Cocaine Cowboy’ expected to plead guilty in Florida court
MIAMI — The so-called last of Miami’s “cocaine cowboys,” a man who hid from the law for 26 years, is set to plead guilty to decades-old drug charges.
Court records show a change-of-plea hearing is scheduled Thursday in Miami federal court for 56-year-old Gustavo Falcon. He previously pleaded not guilty to a 1991 indictment charging him in a major cocaine smuggling operation during the 1980s.
Falcon vanished in 1991 when he was charged along with his older brother Augusto “Willie” Falcon, Salvador “Sal” Magluta and others. The gang purportedly smuggled at least 75 tons (68,000 kilograms) of cocaine into the U.S. and made some $2 billion in the hyper-violent “Miami Vice” era.
Falcon was arrested by U.S. Marshals in April near Orlando, where he lived under an alias with his wife.
