Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, And The Sting That Launched The War On Drugs,New

In The Late 1970S And Early '80S, A Cadre Of Freewheeling, Southern Pot Smugglers Lived At The Crossroads Of Miami Vice And A Jimmy Buffett Song. These Irrepressible Adventurers Unloaded Nearly A Billion Dollars Worth Of Marijuana And Hashish Through The Eastern Seaboards Marshes. Then Came Their Undoing: Operation Jackpot, One Of The Largest Drug Investigations Ever And An Opening Volley In Ronald Reagans War On Drugs.In Jackpot, Author Jason Ryan Takes Us Back To The Heady Days Before Drug Smuggling Was Synonymous With Deadly Gunplay. During This Golden Age Of Marijuana Trafficking, The Countrys Most Prominent Kingpins Were A Group Of Wayward And Funloving Southern Gentlemen Who Forsook College Educations To Sail Drugladen Luxury Sailboats Across The Mediterranean, The Atlantic, And The Caribbean. Les Riley, Barry Foy, And Their Comrades Eschewed Violence As Much As They Loved Pleasure, And It Was Greed, Lust, And Disaster At Sea That Ultimately Caught Up With Them, Along With The Law.In A Catandmouse Game Played Out In Exotic Locations Across The Globe, The Smugglers Sailed Through Hurricanes, Broke Out Of Jail And Survived Encounters With Armed Militants In Colombia, Grenada And Lebanon. Based On Years Of Research And Interviews With Imprisoned And Recently Released Smugglers And The Law Enforcement Agents Who Tracked Them Down, Jackpot Is Sure To Become A Classic Story From America'S Controversial Drug Wars.The Adventures, The Longgone Economy, And The Sting That Ultimately Brought Them Down And Changed Us Drug Policy Are Meticulously Documented And Lucidly Spun. Part New Yorker Featurepart Jimmy Buffet Song. . . . The Result Is Adventuresome, Lavish, Informative Fun. Gq[A] Rollicking Story, Ryan Manages To Pack In One Amusing Tale After Another.... Jackpot Is A Riproaring Good Read. Charleston City Paperhigh Times On The High Seas: Investigative Reporter Ryan Recounts The Glory Days Of Dope Smuggling And Their Terrible Denouement.... A Welltold Tale Of True Crime That Provides A Few Good Arguments For Why It Should Not Be A Crime At All. Kirkus Reviewsreads Like An International Thriller. . . . Chockablock With Hilarious And Hairraising Anecdotes Of Fast Times. New York Journal Of Books[A] Thoroughly Researched Account Of Operation Jackpot, The Drug Investigation That Ended The Reign Of South Carolinas Gentlemen Smugglers,.... Ryan Recreates The Era With A Vivid, Sundrenched Intensity. Publishers Weekly