I got word a couple weeks ago that Max Mermelstein, the government's most important witness against the Medellin Cartel, a key government witness at Gen. Manuel Noriega's trial, and the man who snitched on Cocaine Cowboys Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday, was in poor health with only weeks to live.

He died last Friday in Louisville, Kentucky, his body ravaged by bone, liver and lung cancer.

Jeff Leen, the former Miami Herald reporter whose book Kings of Cocaine was one of the main inspirations for us making Cocaine Cowboys, has an obituary for Max on the Washington Post site.

Jeff's book led me to Max's book, The Man Who Made it Snow, which in turn led us to Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday.

We had tried to interview Max for Cocaine Cowboys.  I had found out that he was living in Sarasota, Florida.  Sgt. Al Singleton of the Miami Dade Police Department arranged for us to speak on the phone on twice in late 2003.  Max had just testified against Fabio Ochoa in federal court in Miami earlier that year and didn't seem eager to talk to me, so eventually I gave up.  The documentary came out, and I always wondered if Max had seen it and what he thought.