Netflix's Cocaine Cowboys trailer plays up all the fun parts of trafficking drugs

There's something almost suspiciously energetic about Billy Corben's new docuseries about Miami kingpins Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta

By William Hughes | July 22, 2021 | 3:18am

TV News Drugs

Netflix's Cocaine Cowboys trailer plays up all the fun parts of trafficking drugs

Sal Magluta and Willy Falcon, two guys who knew how to have a fun time. Photo: Netflix

Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta are still, more than 20 years after their eventual arrests, considered superstars in the prestigious world of high-end drug trafficking—truly, some of the most prominent celebrity faces of large-volume Miami cocaine distribution alive. The pair’s work speaks for itself: Having allegedly sold more than 75 tons of cocaine in Southern Florida in the 1980s, the duo helped transform Miami into one of the cocaine capitols of the planet; god knows if we even would have gotten a Miami Vice without their hard and tireless work.

And if all that feels a little flip about a business that allegedly involved at least a little murder, well, forgive us: We just got done watching thetrailer for Netflix’s Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings Of Miami , which depicts Willy and Sal as the classic good-time party guys of big money narcotics distribution. The upcoming six-part docuseries is being directed by Billy Corben, who’s been on this beat for years—having made a name for himself with a documentary of the same name in 2006, and a follow-up sequel a few years later. Now, the new series puts its focus squarely on Willy and Sal, painting the duo—whose story is told through the eyes of a number of their old associates—as a pair of modern-day Robin Hoods, if Robin Hood was an extremely rich drug dealer with a habit of bribing public officials to look the other way re: their crimes. Still, though, it’s hard not to get swept up in the energy of it all: The elaborate lifestyles, the illicit prison sex, and the sheer vibe of “You can do anything if you set your mind to it, and also have access to large supplies of a drug that people love to get addicted to!”

Cocaine Cowboys debuts on Netflix on August 4.

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