Square Grouper:The Godfathers of Ganja

In the 1970s and early ’80s, South Florida became the marijuana smuggling capital of America. With thousands of miles of coastline, hidden waterways, and easy access to the Caribbean, an underground economy exploded across the region run not by violent cartel hitmen, but by fishermen, thrill-seekers, hippies, and unlikely entrepreneurs moving massive amounts of Colombian weed into the United States. Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja explores that vanished world through three distinctly Florida stories: the swamp smugglers of Everglades City who transformed a dying fishing town into a trafficking hub; the Black Tuna Gang, whose freewheeling operation made them legendary targets in the government’s escalating war on drugs; and the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, a Miami-based religious sect that treated marijuana as both sacrament and way of life.