Cocaine Cowboys/Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin’ with the Godmother

USA | 2006/2008 | Directed by Bill Corben

Loglines: The true story of the smugglers and law enforcement in Miami, Florida, which became the cocaine capital of the world during the 70s and 80s/The true story of a Californian street kid who, during the 90s, became the right hand man to the cocaine queen who had masterminded the Miami coke trade of the previous decades.

Two fast-paced, magazine-style documentaries that provide fascinating insight into how cocaine overwhelmed America, set chiefly in the cities of Miami and Oakland, and spanning nearly four decades. These are essential viewing for anyone who was a fan of Scarface and the Miami Vice television series.

Cocaine Cowboys tells the adventures and misadventures of Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday, two smugglers who worked for Griselda Blanco (apt surname), a ruthless Colombian drug lord, the Cocaine Queen, as she was referred to, and later as the Black Widow because she murdered several husbands and lovers. Roberts and Munday were responsible for bringing the coke across the border, in most cases via a boat which Roberts drive, or a Cesna which Munday piloted.

These guys became wealthy themselves over the years but eventually crashed and burned in the same sting that netted Blanco. Munday became a fugitive for several years. Both men have done their time and talk openly about their time, both the highs and the lows, as does Jorge “Riva” Ayala, Blanco’s main hitman, still serving time. Their yarns are compelling; the mountainous excess of cocaine and cold hard cash on display in the archival police footage is astonishing.

Griselda Blanco was immensely powerful and controlled all of the cocaine coming into America. The notorious Pablo Escobar was in fact one of her protégés. Blanco was a billionaire, but she was finally brought to (semi) justice in 1985. Of the 200+ alleged murder contracts she had made, she was eventually only convicted of three, due to a serious screw-up in the middle of the trail concerning a sex scandal between Riva and a wanton secretary.

In the follow-up doco, Hustlin’ with the Godmother, a young streetwise African-American, Charles Cosby, became fascinated with Griselda Blanco and the allure of her extraordinary wealth and power. He took it upon himself to write to her in prison, and Blanco chose to write back, starting a correspondence that would eventually lead to Cosby visiting her in jail, and paying the guards $1500 so he could screw Blanco behind a tarpaulin.

Cosby’s loyalty and business savvy led to him supervising Blanco’s coke trade whilst she continued to serve time. In six months he was a multi-millionaire. But hell hath no fury like Griselda scorned. Griselda found out of Cosby’s affair with a Caucasian girl and he very nearly lost his life, like so many unlucky men before him.

Cosby’s is an amazing tale of daring. The doco starts off a little pedestrian, but once Blanco enters the picture, the nitty gritty, the true crime narrative takes off. Cosby is an immaculately dressed and articulate man and he talks non-stop, remembering the tiniest details of the past fifteen years. That he’s come out with only one bullet scar is testament to some kind of dark angel looking down on him. The contrast between the Cosby of the present and the archival home video footage of him back in the day addressing the camera and spouting the hard truths is extreme, both in his appearance, but also his attitude.

Hustlin’ with the Godmother is much more stylized as a doco than its predecessor – it’s almost a perverse love story – but the hip hop crime tale is no less compelling. Both documentaries march swift and hard like the proverbial dandruff of the gods, and effectively paint a studied portrait that suggests, “D-d-d-d-d-d-don’t-don’t-don’t do it, do it, do it, b-b-b-baby!”

COCAINE COWBOYS TRAILER:

COCAINE COWBOYS II TRAILER:

Cocaine Cowboys & Cocaine Cowboys II DVDs courtesy of Madman Entertainment, many thanks!