Of Grass and Snow: The Secret Criminal Elite

"Many things have changed since Richard Nixon was elected President and in the name of law and order launched a curious war against heroin. Today, the deadly drug still enters the country, but it comes not from the Middle East but from the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia and, in less potent form, from the camouflaged fields of Mexico. No longer is the traffic controlled by Frenchmen and Corsicans on the wholesale side and the sons of the Mafia on the retail end. Chinese and Latins handle delivery and liberated blacks its distribution. The public still talks of La Cosa Nostra, but the informed consider it more of a joke than ever. "Heroin, however, has become a minor part of the booming drug traffic. 'Mother ships' stand off the coast of Florida loaded with tons of marijuana...Fast boats race out to bring,itin, and trucks and motor homes carry it north. As the flood continues, veterans recall the rum-running days of Prohibition when the old syndicate was born. "Along with grass comes snow-cocaine. Once the Cadillac of drugs, it is now the joy of the affluent middle class...Importation and distribution of grass is open to all, and many 'Anglos' have been attracted by its promise of quick wealth, but cocaine remains the exclusive province of 'Latins.' Many are Cuban exiles, trained and armed by the CIA-hot-tempered, hungry, and amoral. Guns and bombs go off routinely along the Gold Coast of Florida and on the waters of the Spanish Main, where once pirates such as Black Caesar and rummies such as Jill McCoy roamed." -from Of Grass and Snow