Title: Thirty Years Of America's Drug War | Drug Wars | FRONTLINE | PBS
Headings: 

Content: 1978

Asset forfeiture introduced
The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act is amended. It now allows law enforcement to seize all money and/or "other things of value furnished or intended to be furnished by any person in exchange for a controlled substance [and] all proceeds traceable to such an exchange." 1979

Carlos Lehder purchases property on Norman's Cay. Carlos Lehder, a key member of the alliance that would become the Medellin cartel, revolutionizes the cocaine trade with his purchase of 165 acres on the Bahamian island of Norman's Cay. Lehder is the first to use small planes for transporting the drug. He uses the island as a hub for planes to refuel between Colombia and the U.S.
Drug traffickers George Jung and Carlos Toro describe life on Norman's Cay. 1979
(July 11)

Cocaine trade becomes increasingly violent. A deadly shootout between Colombian traffickers in broad daylight at Miami's Dadeland Mall brings the savagery of the Colombian cocaine lords to the attention of U.S. law enforcement. 1981-1982

Rise of the Medellin cartel. The alliance between the Ochoa family, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha strengthens into what will become known as the "Medellin Cartel."