-
Saltwater Cowboy
- The Rise and Fall of a Marijuana Empire
- Narrated by: Wes Talbot
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, True Crime
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3 out of 5 stars
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Publisher's Summary
In 1979, Wisconsin native Tim McBride hopped into his Mustang and headed south. He was 21, and his best friend had offered him a job working as a crab fisherman in Chokoloskee Island, a town of fewer than 500 people on Florida's Gulf Coast. Easy of disposition and eager to experience life at its richest, McBride jumped in with both feet. But this wasn't a typical fishing outfit.
McBride had been unwittingly recruited into a band of smugglers - middlemen between a Colombian marijuana cartel and their distributors in Miami. His elaborate team comprised fishermen, drivers, stock houses, security - seemingly all of Chokoloskee Island was in on the operation. As McBride came to accept his new role, tons upon tons of marijuana would pass through his hands.
Then the federal government intervened in 1984, leaving the crew without a boss and most of its key players. McBride, now a veteran smuggler, was somehow spared. So when the Colombians came looking for a new middle-man, they turned to him.
McBride became the boss of an operation that was ultimately responsible for smuggling 30 million pounds of marijuana. A self-proclaimed "Saltwater Cowboy", he would evade the Coast Guard for years, facing volatile Colombian drug lords and risking betrayal by romantic partners until his luck finally ran out.
A tale of crime and excess, Saltwater Cowboy is the gripping memoir of one of the biggest pot smugglers in American history.
What listeners say about Saltwater Cowboy
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C_Burress
- 10-13-21
Loved this book
This is crazy sounds like a lot of fun. Well the first part anyway thanks for sharing some of your stories I heard about this book on the koncreat podcast
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-18-21
Great story!
It was a very interesting story, kept me wanting to know what was next the entire time!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Drew Mauney
- 10-09-19
marijuana laws
marijuana laws are ignorant and archaic and need to be changed ASAP! a very good book!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Porkchop
- 01-11-18
Great made even better by the fact it's non fictio
Having grown up in southwest Florida during this period, I am very familiar with the locations and events described from news stories. It's interesting to hear the other side.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-24-17
Awesome book!
As a born and raised Floridian this book touches my soul hearing of passing through rivers to evade capture and running through islands that I've grown up on. These guys lived my dream life (less the legal issues).
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 10-24-17
Great stories Tim!
I loved this book. it had me laughing and in suspense. I highly recommend. 😉