Cocaine CowboysMovies like Cocaine Cowboys
- Key Features:
- Organized crime, Drug trafficking, True crime, Miami, 1980s, Violence-high, Greed, Power struggle, Gang warfare, Historical context, Criminal underworld, Betrayal, Corruption, American dream, Excess, Cultural impact, Social commentary
- Tone:
- serious, gritty, suspense-driven
- Target Audience:
- True crime enthusiasts, History buffs, Urban culture enthusiasts, Documentary viewers
- Emotional Arc:
- Intrigue → Tension → Shock
Cocaine Cowboys

In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago - and it put the city on the map. "Cocaine Cowboys" is the true story of how Miami became the drug, murder and cash capital of the United States, told by the people who made it all happen.
Cocaine Cowboys
A cheap, powerful drug emerges during a recession, igniting a moral panic fueled by racism. Explore the complex history of crack in the 1980s.

To a growing number of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas, narco-traffickers have become iconic outlaws and the new models of fame and success. They represent a pathway out of the ghetto, nurturing a new American dream fueled by the war on drugs. Narco Cultura looks at this explosive phenomenon from within, exposing cycles of addiction to money, drugs, and violence that are rapidly gaining strength on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border

A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.

At the age of 17, Griselda Blanco, made her way to the U.S. with a fake passport with her first husband Carlos. Living in Queens with her three sons, Griselda became enticed by the money the drug world offered, and quickly became embroiled with local drug runners. Griselda masterminded the use of beautiful women, the elderly and children as the mules and created false-bottom suitcases to smuggle cocaine from Colombia.

A case involving drug lords and murder in South Florida takes a personal turn for undercover detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Unorthodox Crockett gets involved romantically with the Chinese-Cuban wife of a trafficker of arms and drugs, while Tubbs deals with an assault on those he loves.

The stranger-than-fiction true story of a Russian mobster, a Miami playboy, and a Cuban spy who teamed up in the early '90s to sell a Soviet submarine to the Cali Cartel.

In a world where ninjas dream of being rock stars and rock stars dream of being ninjas, a martial arts rock band goes up against a band of motorcycle ninjas who have tightened their grip on Florida's narcotics trade.

After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.

The real life story of Andres Lopez Lopez aka "Frecita" during his years involved with the Colombian Cartel aka "Cartel Norte del Valle"

The true story of pilot Barry Seal, who transported contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel in the 1980s.

The chronicle of the mind-blowing journey that was Hollywood during the seventies; the true and gripping story of the last golden age of American cinema, an exalted celebration of creativity and experimentation; but also of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll: a turbulent and dark tale of ambition, envy, betrayal, hatred and self-destruction.

Inspired by a true story, an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converge in a Georgia forest where a 500-pound black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine.

When JW becomes a drug runner in order to maintain his double life, his fate becomes tied to two other men: Jorge, a fugitive on the run from both the Serbian mafia and the police, and mafia enforcer Mrado, who is on the hunt for Jorge.

American corporations are using the North American Free Trade Agreement by opening large maquiladoras right across the United States–Mexico border. The maquiladoras hire mostly Mexican women to work long hours for little money in order to produce mass quantity products. Lauren Adrian, an impassioned American news reporter for the Chicago Sentinel wants to be assigned to the Iraq front-lines to cover the war. Instead, her editor George Morgan assigns her to investigate a series of slayings involving young maquiladora factory women in a Mexican bordertown.

When a narco past his prime refuses to pay a debt to an upstart, only a secret stash of money can save his men. But guess what the gardener just found?

Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.

During the marijuana bonanza, a violent decade that saw the origins of drug trafficking in Colombia, Rapayet and his indigenous family get involved in a war to control the business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture.

At the age of nine, Rebeca is sold by her grandmother to the bookseller who ran Rocinha. Disputed by bicheiros and drug dealers, the community is going through changes in power. Rebeca becomes the wife of the chief drug dealer and, with the death of her partner, his successor. The electrifying trajectory of crime, violence, drugs and love of a female drug kingpin in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s.

An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.

The story of a group of friends in turn of the century New York, from their early days as street hoods to their rise in the world of organized crime...

Set in 2013 Monterrey, Poncho is a student at a prestigious college, he goes to get weed with his friend El Greñas, they go to La Bomba to get some. Although when La Bomba runs out of weed, they decide to take him on a quest to get more weed from El Perro. When Poncho needs to go back home, La Bomba kidnaps both Poncho and Greñas and taking Poncho's phone and car. La Bomba contacts Poncho's father to get him one million dollars to free his son, though Bomba didn't know the deadly consequences.

An ex-marine is hired by a defense contractor to travel to Panama to complete an arms deal. In the process he becomes involved with the U.S. invasion of Panama, and learns an important lesson about the true nature of political power.

This documentary explores the hidden history of the American Exploitation Film. The movie digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment.

Detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey of the Miami Narcotics Task Force are tasked with stopping the flow of the drug Ecstasy into Miami. They track the drugs to the whacked-out Cuban drug lord Johnny Tapia, who is also involved in a bloody war with Russian and Haitian mobsters. If that isn't bad enough, there's tension between the two detectives when Marcus discovers that playboy Mike is secretly romancing Marcus’ sister, Syd.

In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," shepherds a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar, the violent drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley—a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley—Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to halt Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.

Big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top, Victor soon finds out that he's been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.

Miami Bici is the story of Ion and Ilie, two young people from a small dark city in Romania who go to Miami in the middle of winter, to live both the "American Dream" and the Romanian dream of "getting rich quick". Once there, they find themselves in the middle of the Machiavellian plan of Mișu, a Romanian of the lowest species, established in Florida.

The story of the rise and fall of the first American-born drug lord in Mexico, this tale of power, money, greed and betrayal amongst rival members of the drug cartels finds American gangster Erik Vasquez scheming to become the top dog in the Mexican underworld, only to find himself making enemies out of both the powerful cartels and his own allies.

Antwerp, Belgium. The lives of four small-time drug dealers spin out of control when they steal a shipment of cocaine, triggering a full out war between an Amsterdam drug lord and a ruthless Colombian cartel.

When João goes to Brazil in search of a better life, he meets punk music enthusiast Maria and falls in love with her. But his involvement in the local drug trade makes him the target of a vicious drug lord.

During the '80s, a young man named Frankie dreams of escaping London's South East region, and his mother's thug of a boyfriend gives him just the opportunity. After beating up the abusive beau, Frankie runs off to Spain, where he lands a job delivering a package to the dapper Playboy Charlie, a gangster who takes him under his wing. Working as Charlie's driver, Frankie is immersed in a world of fast cars and pretty women -- but all the excess could be his undoing.

Drug lord Dwayne Gittens rules Cincinnati with an iron fist. No wonder he's known as "God" on the streets. Determined to break Gittens' stranglehold on the city is undercover cop Jeffrey Cole. But as Cole takes on an assumed identity to penetrate Gittens' criminal empire, he makes a disturbing discovery -- he kind of likes being a gangster.

Max S. reveals how he built a drug empire from his childhood bedroom in this story that inspired the series "How to Sell Drugs Online."

FBI informant Jim Hoffman lures troubled automobile magnate John DeLorean to an undercover sting for cocaine trafficking.

Based on the true story of Jim and Artie Mitchell, two brothers who entered the porn industry in the early 60's. After creating such legendary porn films as "Behind the Green Door" and "Inside Marily Chambers", they later became addicted to drugs and began a downward spiral leading to bankruptcy and murder.

A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.

In the streets of East Los Angeles, Manny is a formidable drug dealer. Impressed by his extravagant lifestyle and prowess, his young son, Kilo, yearns to follow in his footsteps. Kilo resolves to learn how to prosper in the drug world, and his new life as a dealer begins. In a world where a man wants everything, he may end up with nothing.

Roberto makes a pact with the devil to please his multiple lovers sexually, Satan accepts the deal but promises to snatch his soul when he finds true love. Meanwhile, two cops are on the lookout for those responsible of a murderous drug on the streets.

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs? Director Christopher Bell explores America's win-at-all-cost culture by examining how his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream.

Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.

The story of America's most famous mobsters and their rise to power. Examine Al Capone's ascension through the eyes of his second in command, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn.

Málaga, southern Spain. Seven men, divided into four cars, set off with a large drug shipment towards Creil, a city near Paris; a routine mission that will be complicated by a fatal sequence of events.

Ace is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch, goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing cocaine for Lulu. Via lucky breaks and solid interpersonal skills, Ace moves to the top of the Harlem drug world. Of course, unfaithful employees and/or rivals conspire to bring about Ace's fall.

A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.

Marcus Burnett is a henpecked family man. Mike Lowrey is a footloose and fancy free ladies' man. Both Miami policemen, they have 72 hours to reclaim a consignment of drugs stolen from under their station's nose. To complicate matters, in order to get the assistance of the sole witness to a murder, they have to pretend to be each other.

Lenny Brown moves to California to find his fortune in tax shelter investments. When the federal government changes the tax laws, poor Lenny finds himself $700,000 in hock with nowhere to turn. His friend, Joel, introduces him to cocaine to give Lenny that needed "boost". What ensues next is a descent into drug addiction and insanity as Lenny tries to regain control of his life, all the while needing that extra "boost".

A small-time crime boss kills a drug dealer without realizing that the drug dealer works for the biggest crime boss in the country.

Meet the dirtiest cop in NYC history. Michael Dowd stole money and dealt drugs while patrolling the streets of '80s Brooklyn.

Reckless Ricky makes serious money dealing illegal weapons throughout the tri-state area and loves to flaunt it. Traveling salesman Cliff, covers the same territory Ricky runs guns through. Desperate to find some financial relief for his struggling family, Cliff agrees to partner with Ricky, to commit cross-state drug and gun deliveries for a mid-level American cartel boss John. When a simple exchange turns into a bloodbath after Ricky kills everyone in a territory grab, the pair find themselves in a pressure cooker situation where unlikely drug dealer Cliff must fight as hard as he can to stay alive.

In Argentina, between 1982 and 1985, the Puccios, a well-established family of San Isidro, an upper-class suburb of Buenos Aires, kidnap several people and hold them as hostages for a ransom.

Two youths, Niño and Compi, enter the world of drug smuggling in the Strait of Gibraltar; while two police officers, Jesús and Eva, try to eradicate the contraband.

In the near future, Frank, a police officer, discovers that the legalization of all recreational drugs comes with a price.

2013. During Operation Bidone, the Federal Police seized a truck loaded with palm heart, which contained 697 kg of cocaine. The investigation falls on the team assembled by Ivan Romano, based in Curitiba and composed by Beatriz, Júlio and Ítalo. The traffic connections lead them to the dower Alberto Youssef and later to the former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa, who reveals an immense structure involving builders and the government, in order to divert public money. As the investigation progresses, the group led by Ivan is increasingly approaching some of the country's most influential politicians.

Hoping to raise enough capital to finance a legitimate business and leave behind his life of crime, Liverpool underworld boss Ged Brennan sends his brother Ratter and a crew to pull a daring final heist. But when Ratter kills a drug kingpin during the job, Brennan must turn to rival crook Franner to avert an all-out gangland war.

A group of wealthy boys in Los Angeles during the early 1980s establishes a get rich quick scam that turns deadly.

Cigarette smugglers in Naples run into problems with cocaine operations being set up by a rival smuggler.

In the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and destroyed impoverished communities at home and abroad. Yet drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong?

An elite team of DEA agents are assigned to protect a dangerous drug lord and take refuge in a luxury hotel while they await extraction. They soon find themselves at the center of an ambush as the drug lord's former associates launch an explosive assault on the hotel.

This documentary walks the line between fact and fiction, delving into corruption in the Mexican police through the experiences of two officers.

Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.

One of the members of a gang of thieves commits a serious mistake that force them to work for a ruthless gang of drug dealers, endangering the future of the team, their lives and those of their families.

A searing account of what happens when raw talent and extreme personalities collide. In this unflinching, never-before-seen account of drugs and the dark side of professional skateboarding, brothers Tas and Ben Pappas' intense bond and charisma take them from the pinnacle of their sport into a spiraling world of self-destruction.

When their brother Frank is killed by an outlaw, brothers Bob Dalton, Emmett Dalton and Gray Dalton join their local sheriff's department. When they are cheated by the law, they turn to crime, robbing trains and anything else they can steal from over the course of two years in the early 1890's. Trying to out do Jesse James, they attempt to rob two banks at once in October of 1892, and things get ugly

Benjamin and Dom have been best friends since they were kids. On their last night together, Dom plans to send Benjamin off with a pocketful of cash. All he has to do is deliver a package over the border for a friend...

In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these cultural rebels—armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent—stood up to the authorities that meant to keep them down and formed the world’s most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today.

Tony Rome, a tough Miami PI living on a houseboat, is hired by a local millionaire to find jewelry stolen from his daughter, and in the process has several encounters with local hoods as well as the Miami Beach PD.

The story of Giancarlo Siani, a journalist killed by the Neapolitan Mafia in 1985.

A documentary that captures the sensational trial of infamous gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger, using the legal proceedings as a springboard to explore allegations of corruption within the highest levels of law enforcement. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger examines Bulger's relationship with the FBI and Department of Justice that allowed him to reign over a criminal empire in Boston for decades.

Inspired by actual events in the late nineties when Hasidic Jews were recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from Europe into the United States.

Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

A boy named George Jung grows up in a struggling family in the 1950's. His mother nags at her husband as he is trying to make a living for the family. It is finally revealed that George's father cannot make a living and the family goes bankrupt. George does not want the same thing to happen to him, and his friend Tuna, in the 1960's, suggests that he deal marijuana. He is a big hit in California in the 1960's, yet he goes to jail, where he finds out about the wonders of cocaine. As a result, when released, he gets rich by bringing cocaine to America. However, he soon pays the price.

The porn industry has grown from a product purchased on the sly, to be sold on newsstands in the daily press. "La piel vendida" aims to open a window to this film. His actors, actresses, directors, producers ... tell us their profession from the lights and shadows of a cinema by dint of being explicit in its imagery and themes, is hidden in their motivations: the viewer and their protagonists.

Utah and his girlfriend Opal, are drug addicts living on the streets in rural Ohio. After getting recruited by body broker Wood and offered treatment in Los Angeles, Wood takes Utah under his wing and introduces him to treatment center mogul Vin. Wood and Vin bring Utah in on their lucrative and illegal dealings, where saving lives comes second to the bottom line.

The film chronicles the rise and fall of the world's most feared drug lord Pablo Escobar and his volatile love affair with Colombia's most famous journalist Virginia Vallejo throughout a reign of terror that tore a country apart.

To save his little brother from the hands of dangerous narcos of the Medellín cartel, Reda has a plan that is as simple as it is totally insane: put together a team and raid Colombia. But this adventure is going to get completely out of control when he decides to kidnap the son of the cartel leader to exchange him for his brother's life.

A criminal mastermind recruits a group of young bank employees to steal 80 million dollars in one of the largest bank heist in US history.

In Las Vegas, two best friends--a casino executive and a Mafia enforcer--compete for a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite.

A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.

A U.S Customs official uncovers a massive money laundering scheme involving Pablo Escobar.

When Juan, a young gasoline smuggler, is forced to work for a mysterious organization in the desert bordering Colombia and Venezuela, his girlfriend Diana embarks on a journey to uncover the secrets that inhabit this no-man’s-land.

Marcus and Mike are forced to confront new threats, career changes, and midlife crises as they join the newly created elite team AMMO of the Miami police department to take down the ruthless Armando Armas, the vicious leader of a Miami drug cartel.

A documentary on why 'Money Heist' sparked a wave of enthusiasm around the world for a lovable group of thieves and their professor.

Busan, South Korea, 1970s. Lee Doo-sam is a small-time smuggler. After helping a drug gang to smuggle meth, he falls into the dark crime world. Quick-witted and full of ambition, he eventually takes over the drug underworld and starts to lead a double life: a good community leader during the day but an infamous drug lord during the night.

A leader of a drug cartel sends his two toughest henchmen to investigate why a shipment was botched.

Chronicles Jack Harris, one of the pioneers of internet commerce, as he wrestles with his morals and struggles not to drown in a sea of conmen, mobsters, drug addicts, and pornstars.

A special forces team is sent to snuff out a drug den, but find themselves trapped inside it after being set-up and betrayed.

In this true-crime documentary, a charismatic rebel in 1990s Seattle pulls off an unprecedented string of bank robberies straight out of the movies.

After Junior is released from prison, he plans on starting a new life in Miami. But when he kills a man in the airport, he flees the scene and finds Susie, a mild-mannered prostitute searching for stability. The two opposites become romantically involved, and Junior steals a badge and gun from a veteran detective. Using the officer's identity, Junior embarks on a crime spree and convinces Susie that he is the perfect man.

When his brother-in-law runs afoul of a drug lord, family man Chris Farraday turns to a skill he abandoned long ago—smuggling—to repay the debt. But the job goes wrong, and Farraday finds himself wanted by cops, crooks and killers alike.

A tough undercover cop inadvertently gets involved in a dangerous heroin ring when a young defector of the drug trade leaves his five year-old sister in his care.

A true-crime comedy exploring a failed music festival turned internet meme at the nexus of social media influence, late-stage capitalism, and morality in the post-truth era.

On the afternoon of July 1, 1981, Los Angeles police responded to a distress call on Wonderland Avenue and discovered a grisly quadruple homicide. The police investigation that followed uncovered two versions of the events leading up to the brutal murders - both involving legendary porn actor John Holmes.

During a murder investigation, the police uncover a human trafficking network that involves a politician the media is protecting.

When Baton Rouge police detective Bud Carter busts contract killer Jesse Weiland, he convinces Jesse to become an informant and rat out the South's most powerful crime ring.

A drug cartel boss is arrested in a raid and coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.

An undercover cop teams up with a martial-arts expert to stop a gang of drug smugglers and car thieves.

An examination that goes beyond the celebrity-driven headlines and dives into the methods used by Rick Singer, the man at the center of the shocking 2019 college admissions scandal, to persuade his wealthy clients to cheat an educational system already designed to benefit the privileged.


