We arrive at Sandy Point. Modest and beautiful all the same, it's littered with the detritus of the recent hurricanes and time. There are a number of terns and gulls on the sandy bars that jut out from Sandy Point, huddling against the Nor'Easter weather. About nine miles beyond that is a stiff choppy surf, and a gigantic vessel, visible even in the haze of rain and fog. The vessel hints at land beyond. A small island that used to be called Gorda Cay.
For five year leading up to 1983, Gorda Cay was one of the major smuggling points for cocaine and marijuana heading into the United States and beyond. A few guys from Sandy Point had somehow gotten on the bad side of Gorda Cay's owner. So the owner, a man by the name of Frank Barber, asked the island's caretaker to hold them hostage, and leave them for dead on a small rock just off Gorda Cay.
The island passed through several owners in this period, all of them bent on maintaining a secret drug trade route to Florida.
Freighters from Columbia and planes flying low against the water would drop in regularly. A waiting Cigarette boat would be prepared to haul ass to Florida under the cover of night.
Eventually, the DEA caught on and set up shop on the island. They formed Operation Grouper, and by allowing Frank Barber leniency for information, the DEA snatched up 90 drug villains.
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