Folly Cove

A Smuggler's True Tale of the Pot Rebellion
By Kermit Schweidel
Paperback: $16.95

An audacious pot-smuggling tale of the early days-57,000 pounds of high-grade marijuana from Colombia to Massachusetts by shrimp boat.

Description

A lot of people got high, a few people got rich, and nobody got hurt. As far as we were concerned, we broke a law that was already broken.

Against a 1970s backdrop of Vietnam, political corruption, and radical activism, comes the true story of a loose confederacy of thrill-seeking opportunists and disaffected veterans who pulled off the largest, most audacious pot smuggle yet attempted–over twenty-eight tons of primo Colombian headed for the densely populated coast of Massachusetts in a rusty shrimp boat at the height of hurricane season. From the borderland of El Paso to the High Sierra of Mexico to the coast of South America and back, this is how they parlayed their first puff into truckloads, planeloads, and ultimately, the mother lode. Folly Cove is a high-spirited tale of the early days, when the business of pot was a benign crusade to keep America high.

About the Creators

Kermit Schweidel

Kermit Schweidel, co-founder of a successful Dallas advertising agency, grew up in El Paso, the site of a brief but eventful detour that would bring him face to face with the Department of Justice and result in a felony conviction. It is a label he has worn without regret: "I am troubled only by the chronically painful regret of a screaming lower lumbar. An illicit toke or two in the evening helps dull the pain and remains the organic remedy for a restless mind and the perfect way to laugh, to live, and to never take yourself more seriously than a fart in the wind."

Awards

  • Southwest Book Awards

    Border Regional Library Association

Reviews

  • "A kind of 'Oceans 11' of marijuana smuggling set against the turbulent context of the era's foreign and domestic wars. This tale has everything, from wayward officials to smuggling via air and sea to murder, the mafia and the Drug Enforcement Agency."

    - Roundup Magazine
  • It's tempting to describe Folly Cove as "Reefer Madness" toked up on steroids. This well-written book offers much more information and entertainment than that 1936 anti-marijuana film

    - Lone Star Literary Life

Paperback

  • ISBN 9781941026823
  • Publication Date Mar 06, 2018
  • Trim Size 5.5 × 8.5 in
  • Weight 0.8 lbs
  • Page Count 304
  • Interests

  • Audience Adult
  • BISAC Category 1 HISTORY / United States / 20th Century
  • BISAC Category 2 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
  • BISAC Category 3 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY/ Criminals & Outlaws
  • Themes Informational / Expository Nonfiction, Nonfiction
  • Reading Levels

  • Guided Reading Adult
  • Interest Level Adult
  • Reading Level Adult
  • This Book is Included in These Collections:

    • 10
      Adult Nonfiction
      Collection of 10 books: $185.50

      Photographs of My Father

      A son tries to understand the violent murder of his father--civil-rights leader Rev. Robert Spike--in 1966.

      ¡Ándale, Prieta!

      This beautifully open coming-of-age memoir by a Mexican American debut writer doubles as a love letter to the tough grandmother who raised her.

      A Song for the River

      The mountain he loves goes up in flames. His friend and fellow lookout dies. He falls in love. Wilderness endures.

      Dealing Death and Drugs

      In response to the violence destroying Juarez, two elected officials from El Paso ending marijuana prohibition as sound public policy.

      Dirty Dealing

      "A hell of a story about drugs, corruption and violence, told by a virtuoso." -- Playboy magazine

      Drug Lord

      "Drug Lord is the real thing. Raw, immediate, indispensable." -- Don Winslow, author of City on Fire and The Power of the Dog

      Folly Cove

      An audacious pot-smuggling tale of the early days-57,000 pounds of high-grade marijuana from Colombia to Massachusetts by shrimp boat.

      Revenge of the Saguaro

      Who killed that saguaro outside Phoenix? What is the sound of one billboard falling? Cochise who?

      Ringside Seat to a Revolution

      Visionary essays and images from the crucible of the Mexican Revolution.

      What Men Call Treasure

      Legend says treasures lie deep inside Victorio Peak: A parable about obsession, hope, and humanity.

    ADA Site Compliance-Accessibility Policy