Cocaine Cowboys

The cocaine trade of the `70s and `80s had an indelible impact on contemporary Miami. Smugglers and distributors forever changed a once sleepy retirement community into one of the world`s most glamorous hot spots, the epicenter of a $20 billion annual business fed by Colombia`s Medellin Cartel. By the early `80s, Miami`s tripled homicide rate had made it the murder capital of the country, which a TIME cover story dubbed the city "Paradise Lost." (official distributor synopsis)