Ep 320 - One Step Over The Line

About this episode

Ken Behr shares his experiences in the South Florida drug smuggling world and his eventual decision to cooperate with federal investigations.

Most people know the drug war from movies. Ken Behr lived it. In this episode of The War Locker Show, Chuck and I sit down with Ken Behr, author of One Step Over the Line: Confessions of a Marijuana Mercenary. Ken walks us through the wild rise of the South Florida smuggling world in the 1970s and 80s — a time when cigarette boats outran the Coast Guard, cocaine moved by the ton, and the line between outlaw and entrepreneur was thinner than anyone wanted to admit. Ken started as a kid moving small bags out of his mom’s house. Over the next two decades he found himself working alongside some of the biggest smugglers in the world, moving massive shipments of marijuana and cocaine through the Caribbean pipeline into the United States. Then the system caught up. Facing a mandatory 25-year federal sentence, Ken was offered a choice most people never have to make: stay loyal to the life… or switch sides. He chose the second option. What followed was a journey into the strange and dangerous world of federal investigations, informants, and the people on both sides of the drug war who understood one uncomfortable truth: When the demand exists, someone will supply it. Topics include: • The…

People in this episode

Host: Chuck

Guest: Ken Behr

Topics covered

• drug smuggling
• federal investigations
• marijuana
• cocaine
• South Florida history
• prohibition
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• drug war
• smuggling
• cigarette boats
• federal sentence
• informants
• prohibition
• entrepreneur
• cocaine
• marijuana

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DEA

Books & works: One Step Over the Line: Confessions of a Marijuana Mercenary

Places: South Florida

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