"When Cash arrived in Miami two years later, the "Cocaine Cowboys" era of Colombian cartel turf wars and lurid violence that began in the late 1970s had peaked, but Miami remained a major drug-trafficking hub. So much cocaine flooded the city in the late 1980s that the cost of a kilo fell to $14,000 from upward of $40,000. Undercover negotiations for tons of cocaine were conducted in parking lots at McDonald's restaurants."
"During his six years with the DEA in Florida, Cash was known as a take-charge leader; he described his style as "management by walking around." He oversaw 771 special agents, whose jurisdiction extended from Miami to Bermuda and the Caribbean. On his watch, the agency made the first joint United States-Cuba drug bust. In the Noriega case, Cash's vigorous style in coordinating federal agencies sometimes rankled federal officials, said Dick Gregorie, the chief assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida at the time,"
Thomas V. Cash died Dec. 25 in Fort Lauderdale at 85 following a stroke. He ran the DEA's Miami field division during a cocaine-soaked era and helped take down Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega and Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. He served as an assistant director of the DEA's worldwide operations and prioritized cocaine trafficking after Len Bias's 1986 death. When he arrived in Miami in 1988, cocaine flooding had reduced a kilo's price to $14,000 from over $40,000 and undercover negotiations for tons of cocaine occurred in McDonald's parking lots. During six years in Florida he oversaw 771 special agents, extended jurisdiction to Bermuda and the Caribbean, and led the agency's first joint United States–Cuba drug bust.
Read at Sun Sentinel
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