Sal Magluta and his accomplice Willy Falcon were well-known in the world of drug dealing and powerboat racing before their empire collapsed.
The early 1980s in Miami was a time of great violence and anarchy. The city in South Florida was beset by a drug war between cartels and law enforcement and had the highest murder rate in the country. A few "cocaine cowboys" like Sal Magluta gained power during this chaotic period.
Magluta and his partner Willy Falcon were Miami's two most notorious drug traffickers, with the first earning an estimated $2.1 billion in cocaine money. However, when these drug lords were at the height of their power, they weren't perceived as all bad.
Salvador "Sal" Magluta is a Cuban American former cocaine kingpin and powerboat racer who, along with his partner Willy Falcon, operated one of the most significant cocaine trafficking organizations in South Florida history. The duo became known as Los Muchachos, Spanish for "the boys".
Indeed, Magluta and Falcon were admired as local "Robin Hoods". Locals referred to these two Cuban-Americans as "Los Muchachos", or "The Boys". Their donations often went to deserving local institutions and organizations. Although they were criminals, they showed no signs of physical aggression.
Salvador "Sal" Magluta was born on November 5, 1954 in Cuba. Both he and his friend Falcon immigrated to the United States as young children after they were born in Cuba. Magluta's family, like many immigrants, came to the United States in search of a better life for their children. Of course, they could not predict what kind of adult he would become.
Magluta eventually enrolled in Miami High, where he went into the drug dealing business with his friend Falcon. But none of them stayed in their class for very long. According to Esquire, both dropped out of school and continued the drug trade to make a living.
Magluta and Falcon encountered drug courier Jorge Valdés in 1978 when he was a former accountant associated with the Medellin Cartel. The meeting took place, where Valdés asked Magluta and Falcon to carry 30kg of cocaine. The duo complied, and they earned around $1.3 million as a result.
The duo saw the potential to make large sums of money in drug trafficking and dedicated themselves to it. As their money grew, they formed a network of like-minded business people and raced at the local motorboat racetrack. They have also contributed to the immigrant community.
Both Magluta and Falcon were loved by locals and respected for their nonviolence compared to other drug lords of the 1980s. They were highly connected to the killer Medelln Cartel but still managed to stay on Pablo Escobar's good side.
These cocaine "cowboys" managed to evade jail time by taking advantage of corrupt law enforcement and using multiple pseudonyms. However, their "unstoppable" power could not continue for long.
Sal Magluta's criminal past has finally caught up with him after years of escaping police surveillance. He and Willy Falcon were accused of drug trafficking 17 times in 1991. The couple was accused of smuggling 75 metric tons of cocaine into the country, Sun Sentinel reported.
They were unexpectedly acquitted in 1996 from the trial, which turned into a protracted and chaotic ordeal. However, they still couldn't get away with it.
Multiple witnesses against cocaine cowboys were found to have been violently assaulted just before their trial began. A few people near the bombed vehicles managed to escape unharmed. When all was said and done, three witnesses had been killed.
This has led many to believe that Magluta and Falcon have abandoned their commitment to nonviolence. They had paid some jurors to turn the case in their favor, which came to light alongside the strange deaths.
Prosecutors brought lighter charges as they worked on a new case against the cocaine cowboys to ensure they would not attempt to flee Miami. At the passport fraud hearing in February 1997, security was surprisingly weak, allowing Sal Magluta to temporarily avoid capture.
By then, Magluta had made connections with a network of offshore companies that allowed authorities to launder "dirty" money that was hard to explain. Many law enforcement officials feared that Magluta had fled the country and was hiding in a foreign country, which at the time did not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
However, Magluta had never actually left Florida. A few months later, he was discovered driving a Lincoln Town Car 100 miles north of Miami and wearing a cheap wig, as reported by the Miami New Times.
Magluta and Falcon faced multiple charges during their 2002 retrial, including ordering the deaths of three key witnesses, trying to influence the outcome of the case by bribing jurors, and money laundering. Old friends finally broke up.
Falcon accepted a plea deal in 2003 that resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for money laundering. He was finally released in 2017, after 14 years in prison. However, Magluta did not accept the terms of the defense bargain. He was convicted of bribery and money laundering charges, although the witnesses were found not guilty of ordering his death.
Magluta was sentenced to 205 years in prison, although he was not convicted of murder; this sentence was reduced to 195 years, but still, in practice, it counts as a life sentence.
Where is Sal Magluta now?
ADX Florence is the maximum security super-maximum prison in Colorado where Sal Magluta is held today.
Sal Magluta is currently held at ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado, home to some of the world's foremost criminals, including Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Magluta spends about 22 hours a day in solitary confinement, in a small cell with little access to natural light. In December 2020, Magluta requested a compassionate release so he could spend the rest of his life in isolation with his mother and other family members.
Lawyers for the former cocaine cowboy have expressed concern over the continued solitary confinement due to a variety of health issues, including chronic kidney disease, ulcerative colitis, severe depressive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
As reported by the Miami New Times, this request was denied in 2021. United States District Court Senior Judge Patricia A. Seitz said she thought Magluta "remains a risk to society" and that "Magluta's health grounds are not valid."
As significant as Magluta's mental health issues were, Seitz, said Magluta "refused or did not participate in therapy and refused extracellular rest time." The court also expressed reservations about Magluta's return to live with his family, citing numerous instances where his family had assisted Magluta in his criminal attempts.
Despite persistent speculation that witnesses at Magluta and Falcon's first trial ordered their deaths, Magluta was never convicted of a violent crime. Even after serving almost a century in the nation's highest security prison, he won't be eligible for parole until 2166.