The Black Tuna Gang
We were well known at Cannabis World for our tag line about learning and growing, “If you are learning as you grow, then you are growing too.” And, in all honesty, that’s much more than just rhetoric, it’s really the way we live. Despite being well into “middle age”, we still consider ourselves students, fortunately, that ties in well with the historical/educational aspect of our blog.
One of the goals in creating the 3LB’s Cannabis Chronicles was to give ourselves (and the individuals interested enough to bother to read our blog) a better sense of history and perspective concerning the cannabis community. With that in mind, we’d like to do our best to tell the story of the Black Tuna Gang, it’s anything but a fish tale.
As a simple introduction to the story, we’ll first present the basic story, as told by none other than the US Drug Enforcement Agency in their DEA History Book . . .
The Black Tuna Gang and Operation Banco1
In 1979, a joint DEA/FBI task force in Miami immobilized the Black Tuna Gang, a major marijuana smuggling ring responsible for bringing 500 tons of marijuana into the United States over a 16-month period.
The Black Tuna gang derived its name from the radio code name for a mysterious Colombian sugar grower and drug dealer, Raul Davila-Jimeno, who was the major supplier of the organization. Many of the gang members wore solid-gold medallions bearing a black tuna emblem. The medallions served as a talisman and symbol of their membership in this smuggling group. With the assistance of this small private army, Davila, who called himself a sugar, coffee, and petroleum exporter, virtually ruled Santa Marta, Colombia, where the majority of Colombian marijuana was grown. It was a highly organized ring, with gang members maintaining security and eavesdropping on radio frequencies used by police and U.S. Customs officials.
The Black Tuna gang operated, at least briefly, from a suite in Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau Hotel and arranged bulk deliveries to a moored houseboat. They were affiliated with the vice-president of a prestigious Ft. Lauderdale yacht brokerage and were thus able to obtain specialized boats that could carry tons of marijuana without sitting suspiciously low in the water. The contraband was transported in these modified boats and unloaded at a series of waterfront “stash houses” in posh neighborhoods.
The Black Tuna Gang ran an elaborate operation, complete with electronically equipped trucks used to maintain contact with the freighters and to monitor law enforcement channels. They were also creative. As a signal that they were ready to proceed with a drug deal, the smugglers sent Davila a box of disposable diapers. This meant, “the baby is ready, send the mother.”
Ultimately, partners in a Miami used car agency were indicted as the masterminds of the Black Tuna Gang, which federal prosecutors called the “biggest and slickest” gang yet uncovered. It was the meticulous work of a DEA-FBI probe of Florida banks called Operation Banco, which began in 1977, that led investigators to the auto dealers and ultimately resulted in the downfall of the Black Tuna Gang. Operation Banco traced the group’s drug profits through South Florida banks until members of the Black Tuna Gang made a large cash deposit in Miami Beach Bank. This case was notable as the first combined investigation by the DEA and the FBI on drug profits behind the marijuana trade.
First off, we’ve got to say, 500 tons is a lot of marijuana. We had to use a calculator, but when we converted that figure from standard US tons to pounds, it came out to 1,000,000 lbs of pot that the Black Tuna Gang brought into the US, all in just a 16 month period!
Wikipedia presents the same basic information, including the 500 ton figure, so it may not be an exaggeration.2 As we continued to research the rest of the story behind the Black Tuna Gang, we found an interesting little article from Time Magazine circa 1979.
Tuna Catch
Computer hooks a drug ring
TIME - Monday, May. 14, 1979“Black tuna, black tuna,” crackled the clandestine radio. That was the signal that another planeload of marijuana was being picked up from Colombia to be sent to the U.S. by the Black Tuna Ring, whose members carry medallions engraved with the fish. The gang is estimated to have smuggled $300 million worth of narcotics into the U.S. since 1974. Last week a federal grand jury in Miami hooked 14 Black Tunas with a 40-count indictment for, among other things, racketeering and smuggling. It was one of the biggest drug busts in history.
Among those indicted were the ring’s alleged bosses, Robert Meinster, 37, and Robert Platshorn, 36, both natives of Philadelphia. They own Miami’s South Florida Auto Auction, a used-car firm that the Government calls “a business front” set up to launder the drug earnings. With a membership of 50 or so, Black Tuna was described by one Drug Enforcement Administration official as consisting of “a very sophisticated and educated group of professional people.” Drugs were ferried, for example, by a couple of former commercial airline pilots who are believed to have known the gaps in the U.S. coastal radar network. A communications expert monitored secret DEA radio frequencies, and a yacht broker painted fake water lines on hulls so that boats would appear to be empty and riding high when actually loaded with marijuana.
After the money started rolling in, Meinster and Platshorn moved into a suite in a posh Miami Beach hotel, and began accumulating boats, cars and houses and bought some prime Palm Springs real estate. In September 1977, according to the indictment, they deposited $1 million in cash in a Miami Beach bank.
Despite its scale, the Black Tuna roundup lacked the melodrama of many narcotics crackdowns. The main action took place in hushed financial offices and on a silent computer terminal screen, as a task force of some 30 DEA and FBI agents, aided by two undercover informants, traced the enormous sums of money generated by the drug running. Dubbed Operation Banco, the investigation scrutinized thousands of financial transactions, hunting for suspicious deposits and investments and then following the funds as they were laundered and transferred to Florida banks.
As a result of its success, Operation Banco may become a prototype for narcotics investigations across the nation. DEA agents in New York City are already working with the IRS and the Federal Reserve Bank. The Government hopes that the ubiquitous computer will prove to be the best sleuth yet in tracking illegal drug traders.
As with Al Capone, the famous gangster who’s illicit profits flowed from a different kind of prohibition, the vast sums of money generated by the Black Tuna Gang’s enterprise also proved to be their downfall.
With that said, we’re not sure if we’d take the same lessons away from that story as your typical law enforcement officer. While LEO might consider the downfall of the Black Tuna Gang a major victory, it’s our perspective that it really heralded nothing more than another escalation in the drug war.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Cannabis Chronicles has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is Cannabis Chronicles endorsed or sponsored by the originators. Source article links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on to may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the links. Please keep on learning and growing - the3LB.
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