The following excerpt is from Rum Runners and Moonshiners of Old Florida, Volume 2 – a book published by The Florida Squeeze last month. You can purchase your copy here.

Illegality comes Naturally to Floridians 

When we think of Prohibition and the crime wars of the 1920s and 1930s, Florida is never the first thing that comes to mind. We may think of infamous characters, Bugs Moran, Meyer Lansky and of course Al Capone. Yet few lovers of history realize the prominent role South Florida, and it’s Caribbean neighbors played in the transportation of illegal booze into the U.S. during this infamous era.

As mentioned in the first Volume, northern Mobsters oversaw stills, smuggling operations throughout the state.  and distribution to hotels and speak-easies and ran many establishments themselves. Rum-running became routine. A case of liquor was $18 in the Bahamas, double that on the street, or behind closed doors, in South Florida. It was as much as $100 up North.

Boats would shuttle the liquor from Nassau to West End and Bimini, less than 60 miles from Florida. Contraband then was packed in “hams,” six bottles to a burlap sack, padded with paper and straw. Most of the liquid contraband entered Florida via the Bahama Islands. The sale of liquor remained legal there, and rumrunners pursued their sordid vocation with virtual impunity Boats sped the hooch to the mainland. The largest settlement was located on Grand Bahama Island, there were nine liquor warehouses there in 1921, and in the harbor, forty to fifty power
boats awaited orders and favorable weather to make their stealthy visits to the Florida coast. As with every era of trafficking or smuggling, the Caribbean was an unwitting asset to illegal actions. 

The Rum runners were aided by local fishermen in both the Caribbean and along the Florida coast, who supplemented their incomes by acting as lookouts for the bootleggers, landings were affected, the cargoes were quickly transferred to waiting vehicles, and the boats would return to Bimini and international waters.