Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs Reviews
Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs
Wall Street Journal True Crime Bestseller! The outrageous lives and crimes of the most colorful pot smugglers of the Reagan era In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a cadre of freewheeling, Southern pot smugglers lived at the crossroads of Miami Vice and a Jimmy Buffett song. In less than a decade, 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 launched 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 mariju
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Mesmerizing,
Review from New York Journal of Books:
Mr. Ryan has hit the jackpot with this tale of drug smuggling on the high seas.
From the very first page, right down to the last sentence, Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs reads like an international thriller rather than the true crime book it actually is. This is due in no small measure to Mr. Ryan’s keen eye as a journalist but also to his extensive research from countless interviews from participants, grand jury and trial transcripts, personal correspondence, news articles, and police reports.
There is also a rare insight into the U.S. system of justice. Each page of the book is chock-a-blocke with hilarious and hair-raising antidotes of fast times–and even faster men and women–always looking over their shoulders, and always one-arm’s length from the long arm of the law.
If this were fiction, it would be terrific. As a factual book, it’s mesmerizing, and as addictive as the drugs in the story.
-Sam Millar, New York Journal of Books
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|Spellbinding Page Turner,
First, I’m from the general area this story took place and like many people in SC, knew one of the families of one of the smugglers. That creates a connection that enhances the impact of the book. That said, I think any baby-boomer will recognize someone they knew, or knew of, in this book. These smugglers were upper middle class college kids in the late 60′s and early ’70′s. On probably every major college campus, there was a small group of people who went from smoking pot to supplying it. The guys in the book just happened to live in a state that was a smuggler’s paradise, allowing them to more fully pursue their careers.
I found the book extremely well written. The author, being a reporter, keeps it factual and not overly dramatic. I thought he was very even-handed, carefully presenting both the smuggler’s and law enforcement sides of the case. In spite of this factual style of writing, the book was riveting.
There are a lot of characters involved and it’s a challenge to keep them straight. While there are some very short interviews, statements and quotes from the smugglers themselves – I wish there were more. I’d be particularly interested in how they view their lives now, looking back on them now after lengthy prison sentences. The author states that most of them would choose the same path again if they could. I found myself wanting to hear more about that.
Finally, these guys were lucky. Unlike today’s smugglers, they eschewed violence, did not carry guns and only smuggled marijuana and hash. But in the same time period, in my hometown, two “gentlemen smugglers” – both sons of prominent doctors – wound up murdered, one shot and one found in his burned down house.
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|History made interesting,
I really enjoyed how the author intertwined History with this story about “Operation Jackpot”
Very well researched!! All the stories left to tell would make a great “Mini Series” on HBO or NETFLIX
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