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
seaboard's marshes. Then came their undoing: Operation Jackpot, one
of the largest drug investigations ever and an opening volley in
Ronald Reagan's 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 country's most prominent kingpins were a group of wayward and
fun-loving Southern gentlemen who forsook college educations to
sail drug-laden 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 cat-and-mouse 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 long-gone economy,
and the sting that ultimately brought them down and changed US drug
policy are meticulously documented and lucidly spun.... Part "New
Yorker" feature-part 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 rip-roaring good read." --"Charleston"" City""
Paper" "High times on the high seas: Investigative reporter Ryan
recounts the glory days of dope smuggling and their terrible
denouement.... A well-told tale of true crime that provides a few
good arguments for why it should not be a crime at all."" --Kirkus
Reviews """ "Reads like an international thriller. . . .
chock-a-block with hilarious and hair-raising 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 Carolina's 'gentlemen smugglers, '.... Ryan
recreates the era with a vivid, sun-drenched intensity."
--"Publishers Weekly" ""
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