Absolutely....

I was working in a bunch of Latin clubs back then. There were a sh!t load of them all with live music and all there to wash cocaine money. It was a GREAT time for musicians.

Just off the top of my head there was "La Clave", "Club Tyrona" "Ricks Bar" and at least 6 or 7 more just in Hialeah. Then in Coral Gables you had "Papa Grande" (Big Daddys). In Miami there was the "Hotel Mutiny" (many big drug dealers hung out there)

But the biggest club of them all (size wise) was a place called "Club International" (pronounced inter-nasion-AL) in Spanish.

I worked at most of them at one time or another. You would go to the bathroom and there would be coke EVERYWERE. I'm talking lines laid out on top of toilets, by the sink, on top of paper towel racks. And it was all there for FREE. Just for the taking. I have no idea who put it there but that stuff was all over the place. Everybody coming out of the mens room would be rubbing their nose.

This was back during the "cocaine cowboys era" That's when the Miami cops were in with the drug dealers. They were literally finding a body every day back then. In trunks, canals, in the water off the causeway (same place they found Johnny Roselli back in the 70's in an oil drum)

When you worked in these clubs they would usually have three different bands a night (the bigger clubs anyway) one band would play a set starting at 9, then another band would come in at 12, then one at 2 or 3 in the morning.

It was not unusual to see limos pull up in front of these clubs and see a 50 year old man with a knock out 20 year old girl. These guys were the big dealers. They would sometimes tip the entire band 5000.00 to play a couple of songs. Like I said it was a great time to be a musician.

Once the Feds really started hammering these drug cartels , and the whole cocaine cowboys thing came to light these clubs started to close like dominos falling. Just one after another would close. It would not be unusual to be called for a gig and see five or six guys standing in front of a padlocked club.

I worked in a club once called the "El Salsero". It was in a bad part of Miami off US1 and 33rd street. The guy who owned it had put a hit out on a Miami cop and also his family. Well the crooked Miami cops went to this guys house, handcuffed him to a chair and beat him to death. Needless to say the "El Slasero" closed....

There is a really good documentary that comes on now and then, it also might be on YouTube called "Miami's Cocaine Wars".

It was just one big party for about 7 or 8 years.

Salvi

This shows a little of what it was like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ4pWzA6gIE