Nation: Pot Smugglers' Paradise

Drug runners easily elude police in Florida Keys

In the past three years, the smuggling of drugs from Latin America has become Florida's growth industry, a multibillion-dollar business involving private airlines and speedboats, Mafia connections and high-priced lawyers. Arrayed against them is the collective might of the U.S. Customs Service, the Coast Guard and the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as local lawmen. The good guys are clearly losing the battle. Last year Feds in the Southeast seized roughly 1.4 million lbs. of marijuana, with a street value of $420 million, and 533...

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