The 2021 Netflix series “Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami,” which chronicles the illegal drug trade that took place in Miami during the 1970s and 1980s, featured the once-beautiful building of Surfside now subjected to disaster: the Champlain Towers building.
The series, directed by Billy Corben and produced by Alfred Spellman and David Cypkin, is about how drug lords used the city of Miami as a way to smuggle cocaine into the country. Throughout the documentary series, Corben interviews law enforcement and former drug smugglers to provide perspective into what happened during the 1970s Miami drug war.
Pedro “Pegy” Rosello, a former drug smuggler who was arrested in the mid-1990s, tells Corben he owned a unit on the fifth floor of the Champlain Tower. In episode two of the series, he begins to tell his story.
“He [Pedro] meets a woman. They’re both probably in their late teens, early 20s at this point in 1987,” Corben tells USA TODAY.
Alexia Echevarria, now a “Real Housewives of Miami” star, is the one Rosello clicks with. They meet at a restaurant and days later, by coincidence, they spot each other at a new nightclub.
“He was in the VIP area, he spotted his friend, spotted her, recognized her from the restaurant, invited her to join them in VIP,” Corben says. “She is very briefly in kind of a momentary love triangle with Jose Canseco, Pegy and herself. He kind of steps up and the two become an item.”
Surfside condo collapse:Town leaders fuming at…
