- Mario Gonzalez, a ‘cocaine cowboy’ was arrested Friday in Miami
- In 1993, Gonzalez tried to run over U.S. Marshals in a car and survived a hail of bullets
- This time, a police dog found him hiding inside a set of bushes
- Gonzalez had been on the run from the law for four years
A cocaine dealer who once survived a hail of over 100 bullets in 1993 and was part of a drug ring that brought billions of dollars in drugs in the U.S. was finally brought to justice after four years on the run.
Mario Gonzalez, a drug dealer known as a ‘cocaine cowboy’ was arrested Friday night after going on the run after his release from prison in 2014.
Two helicopters and nearly 40 officers were involved in tracking down Gonzalez after he eluded them on an ATV.
Ultimately, a K-9 officer sniffed out Gonzalez hiding in the bushes and bit him.
Gonzalez was found with a semiautomatic weapon and cash.
Mario Gonzalez, part of the ‘cocaine cowboys’ drug ring who once survived over a hundred bullets being fired at him, was captured by authorities Friday after four years on the run
In 1993, Gonzalez was wanted on drug and weapons charges – when authorities cornered him, he tried to escape by running them over in a vehicle. When he was captured, he was found with a pipe bomb and a gun.
Gonzalez was subsequently convicted on a rash of charges and spent nearly two decades in jail.
‘Cocaine cowboys’ refers to a ring of drug dealers that worked to traffic cocaine into the United States in conjunction with Colombian drug cartels in the 1970s and 1980s.
They were popularized by a documentary film of the same name in 2006.
In the 1980s, the cocaine cowboys smuggled 75 tons of the drug into the country and made over $2 billion.