Drug smuggling was rampant in South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s. The Fort Myers District Court quickly became extremely busy with new cases that met federal guidelines. This massive influx of arrests and prosecutions resulted in the addition of federal support to Fort Myers.
(left to right) HEADLINE: 200 agents raid Everglades City for pot smugglers; HEADLINE: Pot bust may mean end of town's economy; HEADLINE: At Least 28 People Arrested In Everglades City Drug Sweep
Until drug smuggling became big business in the area, there was only a part-time magistrate judge assigned to Fort Myers. Additional federal prosecutors, marshals, and clerk’s office personel were brought in to handle the growing caseload. Federal law enforcement agencies also beefed-up their staffs.
Relationships developed between the prosecutors and law enforcement, which lead to the dismantling of numerous drug-trafficking organizations.
Operation Everglades
Everglades City, in southern Collier County, was a small town of only 500 people. The residents had traditionally made their living catching pompano, mullet, and stone crabs, as well as gigging frogs in the Everglades.
When drugs flooded South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s, many of the local residents took to marijuana smuggling. The dense mangrove islands that surround the area and its remote location provided a perfect environment for marijuana drug smugglers to drop their bales. Local fishermen—who knew how to travel through the shallow waterways—were hired to smuggle marijuana from Jamaica and South and Central America.
A Town of Women
In a three-year multiagency undercover operation, federal agents arrested nearly 80 percent of the adult male population of Everglades City. A local woman told the Miami Herald:
“It’s going to be a town of women. They’ve arrested all the men.”
The joint federal, state, and county investigation resulted in arrests or indictments of 256 people. More than 580,000 pounds of marijuana, with an estimated value of more than $252 million, were seized, along with cars, boats, and property worth more than
$5 million.
Larry Hart
Criminal Investigator, Fort Myers Police
Larry Hart was in charge of criminal investigation for the Fort Myers Police during Operation Black Rock. He went on to serve as chief of police from 1995 to 2001.
“Operation Black Rock was one of the largest task forces every assembled in Southwest Florida. Crack cocaine took this community by storm. Local law enforcement was not equipped to deal with the influx of drugs into the Southwest Florida community.
A meeting of several agency heads and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration designed the task force, and, as a result, this empire was brought down. Millions of dollars of property was seized and many well-known drug dealers were taken off the street. The 1980s were a difficult time for Southwest Florida because of the massive amount of cocaine and heroin that filtered through our community.”