A Smuggler’s Loyalty - B7

Bonus 7: In 1979, a joint DEA/FBI task force in Miami busted the Black Tuna Gang, a major marijuana smuggling ring responsible for bringing 500 tons of marijuana into the United States over a 16-month period. Black Tuna’s leader, Bobby Platshorn, shares the set-up that led to his serving twenty-nine years in federal prisons- and Ron ‘The Astronaut’ Elliott’s role in it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murder in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio. This week,
we'll hear more from the charismatic former marijuana smuggler Bobby
Platshorn on how and why he and Ron Elliott of
the Coconut Grove Guys crossed paths at the end of

(00:20):
the Black Tuna era. So the question I had for
you is, after you and I spoke, Phil mentioned the
name Ron Elliott, and I did not remember that name
from your book.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
The Ron you're chasin was really not part of us.
They threw him in in the end because we tried
to get him and his partner to do a rescue
mission after we no longer had airplanes available, But that's
really all of it. He had nothing to do with us.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Did you get any read on him when you met
him in person?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
No. I was told he was an excellent pilot, and
I didn't really know him. I reached out when that
plane crashed and Purvis and the other pilots were stuck
down there.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Bobby's referencing a crash in Columbia that involved two of
the Black Tuna Gang pilots. When their plane went down,
Platschorn was in need of another pilot to attempt a
rescue mission enter Ron Elliott.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, he had done a number of trips flying two
I think ASSESSMA for twenty one's doing trips into central Florida.
And he was using two so that one could be
a ghost plane and one would be a legitimate check.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
In, so one was like a decoy.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, I know, he did a lot of trips. He
was successful. He was bringing him into I think north
central Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
And so what did you want him to do for you?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Go pick up the stranded pilots. I probably offered him
a couple of hundred brand or something to go pick
them up, get them out of there, and needed somebody
who was willing to go down right away. I mean,
we had to get them out of there. They were
hiding in the jungle. If the Columbian Army or police
could find them, then it would be a serious jail

(02:17):
term for them or a serious expense bailing them out.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
So originally he agreed to do it. But in addition
to the money, he wanted coke.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I don't remember if it may have been ten.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Keys, which would have been a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, yeah, and that's not a huge shipment, but it
would have put a lot of money in his pocket.
But I had no intention of getting involved in the
coke business. So I made a point of getting a
hold of my connection in Columbia or Raoul and tell them,
under no circumstances was any cocaine to go on the plane,
because at that point it felt like a setup.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
And so did he rescue the pilots?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yes, he did, but he didn't get the coke.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
How did he react to that?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't recall tell you the truth, but I know
when Fervis got out of the plane, the DEA was
there waiting for him, and he was waiting to help
the DEA.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
So you went to all that effort to save him, Yeah,
and then he turned on you exactly. Thank god you
didn't put any coke on that plane because if the
DA was waiting for it.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah, it was originally a coke charge in the indictment,
but they.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Pulled it out, so it was a setup.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yes, it was a setup. I don't know if ron
Elliott knew it was a setup, but George Fervis certainly knew.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
How did the DA even know to be there?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
They were set up with George. George had been busted
bringing the shipment into North Carolina. When he got out
on bail, he needed a place to live and stay
till his trial, and I let him work at our
used car lot, which was part of our auction complex,

(04:10):
so he was around all the time. Then he did
this airplane trip to Columbia. Plane crashed and we had
to get them out of there, him and two pilots,
and we got them out. I felt that was my responsibility,
even though that wasn't my trip.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Wow, how did you feel when you found out that
the DA was waiting and that he turned.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was pretty well sure of it before he was back.
Just all the arrangements for the rescue just had a
bad feel, and I was pretty sure that.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
They'd be waiting, and you did the right thing.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
I was worried about it, but one thing at a time,
get them out of Columbia first.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
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