Friends of Pine Island Library to host Meet the Author event Dec. 13
The Friends of the Pine Island Library hold its first of the season Meet the Author event Thursday, Dec. 13, at 6:30 p.m., at the Elks Lodge. Come meet Tim McBride, author of “Saltwater Cowboy,” as he shares pictures and true stories of his life as an “all American boy who became the head of a multimillion-dollar marijuana smuggling ring.” Some of the tales take place on Pine Island.
Light refreshments will be served; a cash bar is available through the Elks. Tickets are $15 and preregistration is required online through Eventbrite.com.
McBride is a former marijuana smuggler/pot hauler/ living on the edge of the Everglades in Southwest Florida. From 1979 to 1989 he ran these southern waters and the Caribbean with a band of modern day pirates known by locals as, Saltwater Cowboys. In the nearly 10 years that he was involved in smuggling, an estimated 25 million plus pounds of Colombian and Jamaican marijuana was brought through our little corner of the world and distributed throughout North America. At the time, local commercial fishermen knew to avoid the “square grouper” that they would sometimes find out on the water at night.
But it all ended in 1988 when the United States government, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the DEA, the United States Customs, the U.S. Marshal’s, and state and local law enforcement initiated “Operation Peacemaker.” It wasn’t long before a knock on his door was followed with a piece of paper that read, “The United States of America verses Timothy S. McBride.”
Come here about his past exploits!
This event is a fundraiser for the Friends of The Pine Island Library. The Friends raise money to help fund and support programs and library services for children, teens and adults of the Pine Island Community and the Lee County Library System.