The infamous Medellin Cartel led by Juan David Ochoa, Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa, José Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder was responsible for the huge influx of cocaine trafficking during the early 1980s. This billion-dollar criminal enterprise served as the inspiration behind fictional productions like "Scarface" and "Miami Vice," but the remarkable true story chronicling how Miami became the cocaine capital of the United States is told in director Billy Corben's 2006 documentary, "Cocaine Cowboys."
Riding on the success of the film, Corben followed up with a sequel to the cult hit in 2008 with "Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' with the Godmother." This time, he presents the intriguing tale of how a young crack dealer named Charles Cosby worked his way up the narcotics ladder and into the bed of notorious cocaine baroness, Griselda "The Godmother" Blanco. It wasn't long before Cosby had taken over the reins of her vast criminal empire while she was stuck behind bars serving a twenty-year sentence in prison.
Cosby had been first introduced to the drug underworld in 1984 when his friend "Banana" had become one of the pioneering crack dealers in Oakland's Brookfield Village. Banana took the teenager under his wing by showing him the ropes of how to turn powder cocaine into crack (which the documentary provides the actual ten-step process) and put him to work making upwards of $300-$500 a day selling the product around town. Soon, rival gangs started entering the picture for a piece of the powdery pie, though, and competition became so fierce that the number of drive-by shootings and robbery-homicides skyrocketed. One of the unfortunate victims happened to be Cosby's mentor Banana, forcing Cosby to flee and lay low for a while in Fresno with his entire bankroll of thirty grand stuffed in his pocket.
After about a year, Cosby was running low on cash so he didn't have much choice but to return home to Oakland and go back to business. It was around this time that he caught a broadcast on the news covering Griselda Blanco's arrest by DEA Agent Bob Palombo. Cosby was immediately fascinated with the Colombian billionaire and how the "Cocaine Queen" made her fortune by literally making it snow in Miami.
Cosby would never forget seeing Blanco on television, and in 1991, fate finally told him to write her a letter. The letters quickly turned into phone calls, and shortly thereafter the two of them began having a serious relationship. Charles even befriended her youngest son, Michael Corleone (that's right, he's named after Pacino's character in "The Godfather"), and filled in as a surrogate father to the boy. This impressed Blanco so much that she welcomed Cosby into the fold of the family and even trusted him enough to run things on the outside making him a multi-millionaire in a matter of months.
I haven't actually seen the first film, but I can say that the level of detail that went into "Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' with the Godmother" is simply outstanding. Cosby leaves virtually no stone unturned as he covers everything from their early years to the peak of his reign through a non-stop narrative. Even when he takes a short break from speaking, the flow of information resumes with testimonies by hit man Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, DEA Agent Bob Palombo, Sgt. Al Singleton, former Cosby associates, plus others. Corben also supplements the film with a whole scrapbook of photographs, letters, and Cosby's personal video diaries dating all the way back to the 1980s that adds layer upon layer of quality to the documentary.
Another nice touch was how the film reenacts the scenes of sexuality and violence using graphic novel-style animation. The artwork is simple but stylish, and most will agree it was the ideal way to visually re-create some of the more hard-core parts of the story. This tactic conveniently breaks up the longer interview segments, and I personally feel that going the route of using actors would have only chiseled away fragments of the film's validity.
The infamous Medellin Cartel led by Juan David Ochoa, Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa, José Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder was responsible for the huge influx of cocaine trafficking during the early 1980s. This billion-dollar criminal enterprise served as the inspiration behind fictional productions like "Scarface" and "Miami Vice," but the remarkable true story chronicling how Miami became the cocaine capital of the United States is told in director Billy Corben's 2006 documentary, "Cocaine Cowboys."
Riding on the success of the film, Corben followed up with a sequel to the cult hit in 2008 with "Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' with the Godmother." This time, he presents the intriguing tale of how a young crack dealer named Charles Cosby worked his way up the narcotics ladder and into the bed of notorious cocaine baroness, Griselda "The Godmother" Blanco. It wasn't long before Cosby had taken over the reins of her vast criminal empire while she was stuck behind bars serving a twenty-year sentence in prison.
Cosby had been first introduced to the drug underworld in 1984 when his friend "Banana" had become one of the pioneering crack dealers in Oakland's Brookfield Village. Banana took the teenager under his wing by showing him the ropes of how to turn powder cocaine into crack (which the documentary provides the actual ten-step process) and put him to work making upwards of $300-$500 a day selling the product around town. Soon, rival gangs started entering the picture for a piece of the powdery pie, though, and competition became so fierce that the number of drive-by shootings and robbery-homicides skyrocketed. One of the unfortunate victims happened to be Cosby's mentor Banana, forcing Cosby to flee and lay low for a while in Fresno with his entire bankroll of thirty grand stuffed in his pocket.
After about a year, Cosby was running low on cash so he didn't have much choice but to return home to Oakland and go back to business. It was around this time that he caught a broadcast on the news covering Griselda Blanco's arrest by DEA Agent Bob Palombo. Cosby was immediately fascinated with the Colombian billionaire and how the "Cocaine Queen" made her fortune by literally making it snow in Miami.
Cosby would never forget seeing Blanco on television, and in 1991, fate finally told him to write her a letter. The letters quickly turned into phone calls, and shortly thereafter the two of them began having a serious relationship. Charles even befriended her youngest son, Michael Corleone (that's right, he's named after Pacino's character in "The Godfather"), and filled in as a surrogate father to the boy. This impressed Blanco so much that she welcomed Cosby into the fold of the family and even trusted him enough to run things on the outside making him a multi-millionaire in a matter of months.
I haven't actually seen the first film, but I can say that the level of detail that went into "Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' with the Godmother" is simply outstanding. Cosby leaves virtually no stone unturned as he covers everything from their early years to the peak of his reign through a non-stop narrative. Even when he takes a short break from speaking, the flow of information resumes with testimonies by hit man Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, DEA Agent Bob Palombo, Sgt. Al Singleton, former Cosby associates, plus others. Corben also supplements the film with a whole scrapbook of photographs, letters, and Cosby's personal video diaries dating all the way back to the 1980s that adds layer upon layer of quality to the documentary.
Another nice touch was how the film reenacts the scenes of sexuality and violence using graphic novel-style animation. The artwork is simple but stylish, and most will agree it was the ideal way to visually re-create some of the more hard-core parts of the story. This tactic conveniently breaks up the longer interview segments, and I personally feel that going the route of using actors would have only chiseled away fragments of the film's validity.
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