§ Synopsis
In the 1970s and ’80s, Miami became the front line of a billion-dollar underworld that transformed a faded tourist town into a neon-soaked capital of money, violence, and excess. As smugglers flooded South Florida with Colombian cocaine, the city exploded with luxury high-rises, speedboats, nightclubs, and bloodshed, earning Miami the grim title of America’s murder capital.
Through firsthand accounts from traffickers, law enforcement, hitmen, and insiders who lived the chaos, filmmaker Billy Corben unravels the rise of the criminal networks that reshaped the city and burned their mythology into American pop culture forever.
Driven by Jan Hammer’s iconic synth score, Cocaine Cowboys plays like a real-life gangster epic where the American Dream collides headfirst with greed, glamour, and unchecked ambition.