Smugglers Coast

Before South Florida sold sunshine, it learned how to move things quietly.

The Smugglers Coast explores the hidden maritime routes, river networks, and shadow economies that shaped the region long before luxury towers and waterfront brunch. From Prohibition era rumrunners to the cocaine fueled logistics of the late 20th century, this series traces how boats, back channels, and unspoken agreements built infrastructure, power, and wealth along the coast.

Blending documented history with carefully labeled rumor, each chapter separates myth from record while acknowledging the gaps where truth was never meant to linger. These are stories of rivers that knew shortcuts, people who didn’t advertise, and places that benefited without ever signing their names.

This isn’t about glorifying crime.
It’s about understanding how South Florida became what it is and who quietly paid for the foundation.

Aerial view overlooking a section of Ft. Lauderdale Beach near SE 5th Street 1983

The Cocaine Cowboys Who Built (and Bled) South Florida

Smugglers Coast

By: John Payne

On: March 27, 2026

Before the luxury towers. Before the rooftop bars. Before the influencers and the Art Basel crowds and the $22 cocktails on Las Olas, South Florida ran on cocaine. Not metaphorically. Literally. In the late 1970s and through most of the 1980s, South Florida became the primary port of entry forContinue Reading

Rumrunners & River Kings: How Prohibition Put Broward on the Map

Foundations & FolkloreSmugglers Coast

By: John Payne

On: February 1, 2026

Prohibition didn’t make Americans stop drinking.It made them better planners. When the Volstead Act went into effect in 1920, Washington imagined a country sobering up out of respect for the law. South Florida imagined supply chains. You don’t ban a habit. You reroute it. And Broward County, quietly, was alreadyContinue Reading

No products in the cart.

Smugglers Coast

Get in Touch