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Murder in Miami is a production of

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I Heart Radio. What

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follows is some bonus content from

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Mr Happy Miles on his dealing

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with the d and others on the task force

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fighting the War on drugs in the nineteen

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seventies in Miami. Mr

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Miles says there was absolute overlap

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with law enforcement and the opposing

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side of the battle in terms of corruption,

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and that he had a front row seat to it

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during his pre smuggling days as the

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commodore of the Adventurers Club

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in Coconut Grove. My

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want for people to realize

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that people in government shouldn't

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be able to come in and destroy

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your livelihood, in your way

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of life without any

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recourse. It's

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just wrong. It's wrong. You're

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cooperating with them. And

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because Congress thousands fit

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to grant them funding,

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they in turn have

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the right of seizure, and

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so they don't care if you're doing anything

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wrong or not. They just want to

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seize whatever they can

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so they can get funding to

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put gas in the d e A vehicles,

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to have people come

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in that can put you out of business

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and art beat and do

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it with impunity.

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Uh, it's wrong, It's terribly

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wrong. I mean, they can lie

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to you. They can do anything

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they want to in

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an interrogation to try

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and tack trick you into admitting

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something or saying something improper

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that can be used against you.

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Uh and all that's okay.

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A few people realize why

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I ever got into the business, and

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uh uh, it was because

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I was basically pushed into the

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business to survive. You

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know, it's like a sinking ship. You

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jump off of it, you get in a raft

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and hope she'll survive. So

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you contend that until

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the d e A approached

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you, you were a legitimate

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businessman exactly.

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I mean, it wasn't just d e A. It was

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it was FBI, it was d e A, it

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was I R. S and

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uh uh and

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the state police. I mean it was the whole task

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force and and and then

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they came in and said, hey, we might

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seize happy these airplanes, and we're

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putting you on notice so

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if we do seize them, we

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can keep them. But what

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do you think placed you on their

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radar? Was it Jack Devo?

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Well? Yeah, I think that act

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to vote was using

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my airplanes. Did they claim

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that you knew what he was doing with your planes? Well,

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they acted like I either knew

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or was part of it, and did

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you know? Were you? I wasn't

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part of it, and I didn't know. But

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to save his planes from being repossessed

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by the bank, Happy says, he

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turned to smuggling. Well,

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I didn't want to my

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company to go under and disappoint

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everybody who had given

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me money to have the right to sail

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and fly. I

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mean, you know, there's a little

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thing called honor, which very

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few of these guys have. I

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had enough fun afterwards,

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which I would have probably never had,

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uh and never had

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that kind of money if I hadn't gotten

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into the business. So anyway,

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I just at all equals itself

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out, Happy says. Once he

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retired from smuggling, he was asked

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to share his insight with law enforcement

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on how the war on drugs could be

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won. I once gave

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a lecture to people

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from all over the country.

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There had to be forty five people in

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the room, and I

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told him how you shut this at

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least eighty percent of cocaine

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down. And

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when I got done, they

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all agreed that it would work what I

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told them. But like I

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was conducting an orchestra, four

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guys in different corners of the room,

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stood up and they said, yeah,

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but what would we do for jobs.

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They didn't care about shutting it

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down. That was the mentality.

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They didn't want to stop it. Yeah.

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5:08

or wherever you get the stories that matter

5:11

to you. M