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A life of living large and flying huge drug shipments once earned him the nickname El Brujero, The Sorcerer, but his story embodies how greed and happenstance drove him deep into the bosom of one of the world’s most fabled mafias.
From Real Estate to Smuggling
(Reuters) - Dominguez's entrance into the drug world came after his father, a Florida real estate developer, died unexpectedly. At 20, sent by his father to finish a project in a sugar mill project in Haiti, Dominguez was swindled out of $100,000 by two Miami bankers who refused to honor a $14 million loan his dad had worked out for him.
To recoup the loss, he taught himself to fly and then smuggled marijuana from Colombia and the Bahamas into the United States.
Having accidentally just cut down $800,000 worth of weed for the wrong that kidnapped him because of it. To pay them back, he carried a load of cocaine — a decision that paid him $1 million and was the start of a permanent transition from marijuana to cocaine trafficking.
Escobar’s Proposal: A Monthly Salary of $20 Million
When Escobar offered to pay him to fly for him, Dominguez dismissed him, saying he was already making $4 million a month flying for another distributor. He surrounded himself with luxury, with 30 Lamborghinis and his car of the day painted to match his outfit.
But when Escobar dangled $5 million a flight—$20 million a month—Dominguez couldn’t say no. That’s the equivalent of $60 million today, with inflation accounted for.
He proved reliable and skilful in transporting the goods and, in time, earned the trust of the drug lord himself. Dominguez eventually began receiving cocaine in lieu of cash, becoming a pilot-cum-dealer capable of handling smuggling, sales, laundering, and investment on his own.
Dominguez owned a fleet of 30 planes and grew to be one of the top traffickers in Escobar’s empire, according to Roberto’s memoir. The companies he founded ranged from a cellphone firm and a real estate development to a charter plane and boat service and an exotic car dealership. He even had a pet mountain lion, Top Cat.
Downfall and escape from prison
Dominguez’s empire began to collapse in April 1988, when federal agents raided his Florida mansion. He was one of 13 people charged with smuggling more than five tons of marijuana and cocaine into South Florida from July 1984 to December 1985. Officials captured around $3 million in vehicles and aircraft. His business operations were exposed for trading in banned drugs.
Dominguez was convicted in 1991 on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. He spent 13 years in prison, two of them in solitary confinement after he attempted to break out by buying a helicopter while incarcerated and planning to be flown out.
Dominguez, 73, now wants to reinvent himself as a bona fide businessman. Looking back on his journey, he also said: I do believe in second chances and that every loss is an opportunity to kick a little a**.
“Failing is when you give up,” he added. “You’re going to fall? You fall forward. That’s technically two steps you just took.’
Just tell me if you want the metadata of this one as well.
