Old School Florida Smuggling – An Amazing Book and Story (Non-Fiction)

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Old School Florida Smuggling –

An amazing history through the lens of one family

By

Robert C. Hutchinson

The evolution of drug smuggling and related crimes in South Florida can be viewed through the thread of one small family and their many criminal associates by way of one or two degrees of separation in the narcotic smuggling world.  These connections involved a vast and colorful cast of characters that included its share of dirty attorneys, crooked cops, former prosecutors, corrupt elected officials and even alleged links to the Central Intelligence Agency. 

All of their interwoven stories provide an educational and amazing explanation of the times and how they changed in both the drug smuggling and law enforcement worlds.  Both worlds were constantly responding to the developments by the other side in the cat and mouse games, with the government too often playing catch up.

The Barker Family entered the smuggling business in the 1970s and transitioned from marijuana to cocaine and illegal aliens by the 1990s.  They matured to meet the contraband smuggling demands and expanding national strategies and policies of the times.  Through drug and alien loads, broad conspiracies and multiple deaths, the smuggling group was active, successful and notorious at times. 

This is an amazing account of old school Florida smuggling through the long thread of one little family and the far-reaching world they operated in for decades.  It is a bit of a drug smuggling history lesson and a fascinating journey back in time.

An abridged version of this intriguing story was published in a 16-part series by Domestic Preparedness Journal (DomPrep) and its DomesticPrepardness.com website between February 12 and April 3, 2020 (all rights reserved by the writer/author). 

The considerably shorter DomPrep story focused on the Barker Family and their entertaining associates. The broader book below provides a much more detailed historical background and content explaining the close interaction between the enhancement of national strategies and evolution of narcotic and alien smuggling in response. It was a constant competition with very high stakes. In this cat and mouse game, the mice often won.

This wide-ranging and more detailed unabridged story can be read for free below on this website oldschoolfloridasmuggling.com or obtained from the writer at oldschoolfloridasmuggling@gmail.com.

STORY HIGHLIGHT: A prosecution for marine alien smuggling that resulted in the death of four passengers was instrumental in changing federal law and sentencing guidelines. The new law expanded the federal crimes by 60 that were punishable by death.  Added to the list was alien smuggling where deaths result also known as murder in the course of alien smuggling.

STORY HIGHLIGHT: One of the drug smuggling aircraft had a fascinating history. Built in 1943, it participated in World War II and the 1949 Berlin airlift. It then became Navy 8 with the Blue Angels (an early version of today’s “Fat Albert”). After its storied military service, it was sold at auction to be later seized twice for narcotic smuggling. It is now restored to its original beauty and on display at the Castle Air Force Base Museum in California.

Please enjoy and freely share this incredible story and learn a little drug and alien smuggling history.

***** New images have been added to the story *****