The acquittal of "Los Muchachos," two high-living pals accused of smuggling $2.1 billion of cocaine, was a rejection of prosecutors' heavy reliance on plea deals and smugglers' testimony, a defense lawyer said.
Willie Falcon and Sal Magluta, who emigrated from Cuba as boys and were friends at Miami High School in the early 1970s, were acquitted by a jury late Friday on all 16 counts.The men were accused of smuggling 75 tons of cocaine from 1978 to 1991 in what was described as one of the nation's biggest drug operations.
U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey had described it as "one of the most significant drug cases brought to trial in this country in the last 10 years."
The trial was held under tight security after two government witnesses were killed and two were wounded since 1991. The government has never been able to tie the defendants to the killings.
Falcon and Magluta earlier pleaded no contest to charges of smuggling during the late 1970s, but they denied smuggling cocaine from the Colombian cartels throughout the 1980s.
"I think this verdict is a complete rejection of the U.S. attorney," said Roy Black, Magluta's lawyer and one of Miami's top defense attorneys.
He slammed the prosecution witnesses, calling the acquittal a repudiation of the idea that "if someone wants less jail time they can get it for saying something against the defendant."
The prosecution's witness list included a network of current and former federal prisoners who cut deals with the government. Among them was a former pilot who ran a drug smuggling operation through his commuter airline and later joined the witness protection program, and a former drug lawyer convicted of money laundering.
Prosecutors walked quickly from the courtroom late Friday without talking about their case. Coffey said in a phone interview, "Certainly, this is a dark moment for us."
During the four-month trial, prosecutors recalled the infamous 1980s when Miami was "awash in cocaine" and Falcon and Magluta "stood at the top of the drug trade and lived like kings."
The two men known as "Willie and Sal" bought expensive property, raced power boats and lived the lifestyle made famous in "Miami Vice," prosecutors argued.
Defense attorneys countered that others in the community were jealous of their clients' lavish lifestyle.
Falcon and Magluta were represented by some of the top defense lawyers in the country - Falcon by Albert Krieger, lawyer for Mafia chieftain John Gotti, and Magluta by Black, who won acquittal for William Kennedy Smith on rape charges.
Prosecutor Michael P. Sullivan handled the successful prosecution of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega on drug charges.