Miami

‘Cocaine Cowboy' Gustavo Falcon, Captured After 26 Years, Pleads Guilty Thursday

What to Know

  • Gustavo Falcon vanished in 1991 when he was charged along with his older brother Augusto "Willie" Falcon and others.
  • Falcon was arrested by U.S. Marshals in April near Orlando, where he lived under an alias with his wife.
  • He previously pleaded not guilty to a 1991 indictment charging him in a major cocaine smuggling operation during the 1980s.

The so-called last of Miami's "cocaine cowboys," a man who hid from the law for 26 years, has pled guilty to a decades-old drug charge.

In a Miami federal court, 56-year-old Gustavo Falcon entered the plea to a 1991 indictment charging him in a major cocaine smuggling operation during the 1980s. Falcon had previously entered a not guilty plea on the charge.

Falcon faces up to 20 years behind bars and will be sentenced on April 11th. Judge Federico Moreno told those inside the courtroom he has to contemplate an appropriate sentence.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do. I had forgotten about this case before they seized you,” he said.

South Florida's Most Notorious 'Cocaine Cowboys'

Falcon vanished in 1991 when he was charged along with his older brother Augusto "Willie" Falcon, Salvador "Sal" Magluta and others. Prosecutors say the gang purportedly smuggled at least 75 tons of cocaine into California and made some $2 billion in the hyper-violent "Miami Vice" era, loading the drug in tractor trailers and taking it around the country to sell.

Falcon was arrested by U.S. Marshals in April near Orlando, where he lived under an alias with his wife.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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