When The Chicago Outfit Hired The Cocaine Cowboys: Lefty Rosenthal Tried Having Tony The Ant Blown Up In Miami

Scott Burnstein -
November 25, 2021

November 25, 2021 — Famous Chicago mob associate Frank (Lefty) Rosenthal tried to take a murder contract out on his childhood friend, feared Las Vegas mafia chieftain Tony (The Ant) Spilotro, before their bosses in the Outfit beat him to it and the hit man he tried to hire was killed himself. According to FBI records, in the early 1980s, Rosenthal, who was feuding with Spilotro over Outfit business affairs in Vegas and the fact that Spilotro was having a romantic affair with Rosenthal’s wife, Geri, sought out Cocaine Cowboy and CIA asset, Richard (Monkey) Morales, to have Tony the Ant blown up in a fire-bomb explosion on a visit to Miami.

Spilotro was known to spend time on one particular boat when he visited the area in the winter. Rosenthal had previously lived in Florida and maintained ties in the area’s underworld.

Monkey Morales was an explosives expert trained in Cuba. He and Rosenthal met each other in Miami in the 1960s when Rosenthal and his benefactors back in the Windy City hired Morales to car bomb rival bookmakers, per federal documents. Rosenthal fled South Florida for the glitzy Vegas Strip in the wake of a federal investigation into the string of bombings focusing on Rosenthal and other Outfit affiliates living in Dade County.

Rosenthal and Spilotro were put in charge of the Chicago mob’s interests in the Las Vegas gaming industry. Outfit bosses tapped Rosenthal, one of the most legendary handicappers in the American gambling world of the mid to late 20th Century, as their “inside man” and Tony the Ant, pint-sized, but formidable mafia assassin, as the strongman to oversee the whole operation from the streets outside the four casinos controlled on the Strip.

The entire ordeal came to a crashing halt in the final months of 1982.

On October 4, Rosenthal survived a car bombing in the parking lot of a Las Vegas restaurant. The following month, on November 9, Geri Rosenthal was found dead of a drug overdose in a Los Angeles motel room.

In the days before Christmas, Monkey Morales, 44, met his fate and died in a bar fight in Miami on December 21, shot to death outside Rogers On The Green. Morales’ family believes the seemingly random altercation was in actuality a hit and Morales’ brother admitted on his deathbed to executing the owner of Rogers On The Green two years later in an act of vengeance.

Spilotro lasted another four years until he was heinously slain in the basement of a private residence in Chicago, beaten, stomped and strangled to death along with his little brother, Mickey, for his insubordinate behavior. Oscar-winning actors Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro, played Spilotro and Rosenthal, respectively, in the 1995 film Casino. Sharon Stone was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Rosenthal’s wife.

After Rosenthal died of natural causes in 2008 at age 79, it was revealed that he was a longtime confidential informant for the FBI. The character based on him in Casino was renamed Sam (Ace) Rothstein.

Morales cut ties with the CIA and became a wholesale cocaine trafficker in the final years of his life. Richard Morales, Jr. recently told reporters his father admitted to him that he was sent to Dallas by the CIA in the days before U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on the afternoon of November 22, 1963 as part of a “clean up crew.” Morales informed his son that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald from his days training Oswald at a CIA sniper school.

I guess doing the hits right in the corn field made for better cinema.

The tag "Cocaine Cowboys" is thrown out a lot especially due to the movies and recent documentary Cocaine Cowboys about the life and times of Sal Magluta and Willie Colon who were the largest coke dealers in Miami and brought in a blizzard of Blow that lasted a decade.
In reality, The Cocaine Cowboys were three non Hispanic Americansn named Mickey Munday, Max Mermelstein and Jon Roberts, hence the label "Cowboys". While they all dealt with numerous Hispanics, the core of the operation were those three Americanos and that's why they were called Cowboys. It wasn't until the movies in 2006. 2008 and the new documentary that came out this year, that term was applied to the Cubans and Columbians down here like Griselda Marcos, Sal Magluta and Willie Colon who while living extravagant lifestyles, were as much "cowboy" as Lucky Luciano was.

Yup CNote, I n came across that documentary on YouTube many years ago. Those two hours we're better than the whole series on Netflix. It was the actual players telling the story not some tag along woman. I read a few months back that Mickey got in some big trouble again, I think it had something to do with tow trucks and the judge was not taking it easy on him.
They come to bust Him and he shoots a flare at airplane fuel and escapes until years later. Fuck yeah!

Exactly. Anytime I think of Cocaine Cowboys, those are the only guys I'll throw that label towards. Overused term for sure

Funny! I guess it can snow in Florida.
I always found the Miami River Cops interesting. It definitely had to be linked to the quantity coming into Miami

Florida is awash with snow 365 days but past few days a blizzard was in the keys

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article256374702.html

Thats gotta be the first decent shipment of coke I've seen the authorities nab or discover in Florida in many years. It certainly isn't like the old days of Miami where the "Cocaine Cowboys" were running wild and seizures were a daily thing, both in Florida and other major cities like NY, etc.

They have this happen down here seems like every 4 months

https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-...h-of-cocaine-washed-ashore-in-palm-beach


its definitely still coming through south florida

That is just the free stuff that some do-gooder turns in or something, maybe a "cautious" do-gooder

https://wsvn.com/news/local/multipl...rijuana-bust-brought-to-port-everglades/

Do they? I guess it doesn't hit the NYC papers like it did years back. I rarely read of seizures in Florida anymore.

They run it into the Bahamas then from the Bahamas to Florida but when the Coast Guard or FL. Marine Patrol gets close they start dumping product overboard and it floats over to the keys, the beach and the mangroves. They're definitely not bringing it to Florida like they did in the Eighties so the small hauls don't make the national news anymore.
A million dollars worth is a nice haul for your average working man, if you guys found it would you turn it in to the authorities or keep it and try to flip it yourself?

Here's some real weight getting moved around.
"MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless crew offloaded more than $148 million of illegal narcotics at Base Miami Beach on Tuesday.
The drugs were seized in three separate interdictions in the Caribbean Sea in the past two weeks."
https://www.wctv.tv/2021/12/09/coast-guard-offloads-nearly-4-tons-seized-cocaine-miami-beach-base/

The names take on a life of their own, especially online. There was also a group called "The Wild Cowboys" in the Bronx, that was small time, but a book that was an exaggeration of their power made them a legend for a while. I also think that the Purple Gang name was picked up and build up in New York, with different people saying they were in it.

I didn't read that book, but they weren't small time...They were taken seriously because one or two victims got away to tell their story...Correct me if I'm wrong...Blacks did the scouting, and Italians and Irish did the heavy work...They got big time ransom money

I would be scared of the people owning that lost shipment and them trying to get it back; but I def would hold on to some of it

There is a great podcast from Scott Burnstein 'Gangster Chronicles" and it is Mickey Morales son talking about his dad and what went on regarding the mafia and CIA and cartels, it is outstanding

Don't forget Barry Seal all those pilots were Americans.

Good point, I had considered mentioning Barry Seal and Don Aronow as well. Aronow was the original designer of Cigarette boats that smuggled in weed and coke during the 80's and one of the founders of Donzi boats and was murdered in Ft. Lauderdale in the early 90's by a rival. Barry Seal was a maverick who operated on his own with support from the DEA and CIA until they didn't and the Cartels he informed on caught up to him later on and whacked him as well