February 14, 2023 • 5 mins
Bonus 3: Mr. Happy Miles shares the surprising inspiration that took him from The Commodore to eventually working with the cartel.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murder in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio. What follows
is some bonus content from mister Happy Miles on is
dealing with the DEA and others on the task force
fighting the War on drugs in the nineteen seventies in Miami.
(00:20):
Mister Miles says there was absolute overlap with law enforcement
and the opposing side of the battle in terms of corruption,
and that he had a front row seat to it
during his pre smuggling days as the commodore of the
Adventurers Club in Coconut Grove.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
My want for people to realize that people in governments
shouldn't be able to come in and destroy your livelihood,
in your way of life without any recourse. It's just wrong.
It's wrong. You're cooperating with them. And because Congress has
(00:59):
in fit to grant them funding, they in turn have
the right of seizure, and so they don't care if
you're doing anything wrong or not. They just want to
seize whatever they can so they can get funding to
put gas in the DEA vehicles, to have people come
(01:23):
in that can put you out of business in our heartbeat,
and do it with impunity. It's wrong. It's terribly wrong.
I mean they can lie to you. They can do
anything they want to in an interrogation to try and
tick trick you into admitting something or saying something improper
(01:48):
that can be used against you. And now that's okay.
People realize why I ever got into the business, and uh,
it was because I was basically pushed into the business
to survive. You know, it's like a sinking ship. You
(02:10):
jump off of it, you get in a raft and
hope she'll survive.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So you contend that until the DEA approached you, you
were a legitimate businessman.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Exactly. I mean, it wasn't just DEA, it was it
was FBI, it was DEA, it was I, R, S
and H and the state police. I mean, it was
the whole task force. And then they came in and said, hey,
we might seize happ these airplanes, and we're putting you
on notice, so if we do seize them, we can
(02:49):
keep them.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
But what do you think placed you on their radar?
Was it Jack Devo?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well? Yeah, I think that active vote was using my airplanes.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Did they claim that you knew what he was doing
with your planes?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, they acted like I either knew or was part of.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It, and did you know? Were you part of Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I wasn't part of it, and I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But to save his planes from being repossessed by the bank,
Happy says, he turned to smuggling.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I didn't want to my company to go under
and disappoint everybody who had given me money to have
the right to sail and fly. I mean, you know,
there's a little thing called honor, which very few of
these guys have. I had enough fun afterwards, which I
(03:47):
would have probably never had and never had that kind
of money if I hadn't gotten into the business. So
anyway I at all equals itself out.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Happy says. Once he retired from smuggling, he was asked
to share his insight with law enforcement on how the
war on drugs could be won.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I once gave a lecture to people from all over
the country. There had to be forty five people in
the room, and I told him how you shut this
at least eighty percent of cocaine down? And when I
got done, they all agreed that it would work what
(04:36):
I told him. But like I was conducting an orchestra,
four guys in different corners of the room stood up
and they said, yeah, but what would we do for jobs?
They didn't care about shutting it down. That was the mentality.
They didn't want to stop it.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get the stories that matter to you.
Murder in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio. What follows
is some bonus content from mister Happy Miles on is
dealing with the DEA and others on the task force
fighting the War on drugs in the nineteen seventies in Miami.
(00:20):
Mister Miles says there was absolute overlap with law enforcement
and the opposing side of the battle in terms of corruption,
and that he had a front row seat to it
during his pre smuggling days as the commodore of the
Adventurers Club in Coconut Grove.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
My want for people to realize that people in governments
shouldn't be able to come in and destroy your livelihood,
in your way of life without any recourse. It's just wrong.
It's wrong. You're cooperating with them. And because Congress has
(00:59):
in fit to grant them funding, they in turn have
the right of seizure, and so they don't care if
you're doing anything wrong or not. They just want to
seize whatever they can so they can get funding to
put gas in the DEA vehicles, to have people come
(01:23):
in that can put you out of business in our heartbeat,
and do it with impunity. It's wrong. It's terribly wrong.
I mean they can lie to you. They can do
anything they want to in an interrogation to try and
tick trick you into admitting something or saying something improper
(01:48):
that can be used against you. And now that's okay.
People realize why I ever got into the business, and uh,
it was because I was basically pushed into the business
to survive. You know, it's like a sinking ship. You
(02:10):
jump off of it, you get in a raft and
hope she'll survive.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So you contend that until the DEA approached you, you
were a legitimate businessman.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Exactly. I mean, it wasn't just DEA, it was it
was FBI, it was DEA, it was I, R, S
and H and the state police. I mean, it was
the whole task force. And then they came in and said, hey,
we might seize happ these airplanes, and we're putting you
on notice, so if we do seize them, we can
(02:49):
keep them.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
But what do you think placed you on their radar?
Was it Jack Devo?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well? Yeah, I think that active vote was using my airplanes.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Did they claim that you knew what he was doing
with your planes?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, they acted like I either knew or was part of.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It, and did you know? Were you part of Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I wasn't part of it, and I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But to save his planes from being repossessed by the bank,
Happy says, he turned to smuggling.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I didn't want to my company to go under
and disappoint everybody who had given me money to have
the right to sail and fly. I mean, you know,
there's a little thing called honor, which very few of
these guys have. I had enough fun afterwards, which I
(03:47):
would have probably never had and never had that kind
of money if I hadn't gotten into the business. So
anyway I at all equals itself out.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Happy says. Once he retired from smuggling, he was asked
to share his insight with law enforcement on how the
war on drugs could be won.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I once gave a lecture to people from all over
the country. There had to be forty five people in
the room, and I told him how you shut this
at least eighty percent of cocaine down? And when I
got done, they all agreed that it would work what
(04:36):
I told him. But like I was conducting an orchestra,
four guys in different corners of the room stood up
and they said, yeah, but what would we do for jobs?
They didn't care about shutting it down. That was the mentality.
They didn't want to stop it.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get the stories that matter to you.
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