Inside Miami’s Drug War: Cops On the Front Lines
Gangland Wire
Gary Jenkins
4.6 • 647 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 76 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With decades of experience spanning multiple divisions, Burt recounts the transformation of Dade County’s police force—from Metro-Dade to Miami-Dade—and now back to an elected sheriff. He walks us through the gritty evolution of policing in South Florida, where the drug trade fueled daily violence and cartel wars left bodies in the streets. Burt shares firsthand stories from Miami’s cocaine-crazed years, including a shocking drug bust that netted 208 kilos of cocaine and over a million dollars in cash, offering a vivid glimpse into the unpredictable and dangerous life of a street cop.
Beyond the shootouts and seizures, we explore the human side of policing—the growing mental health crisis in Miami-Dade, the deadly unpredictability of domestic violence calls, and the emotional toll that constant exposure to trauma takes on officers. Burt emphasizes the importance of training, de-escalation, and support systems for those on the front lines.
The conversation also previews Burt’s upcoming show, Sergeant Maverick, a podcast where he’ll tackle everything from police work and politics to financial advice for first responders—and even the decline of customer service in America. Join us for this candid, eye-opening conversation as Burt Gonzalez pulls back the curtain on the realities, dangers, and hard-earned lessons of Miami policing during the height of America’s drug war.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, hey, all you wiretappers. Welcome to the studio of Gangland Wire. I'm back here, and I have a |
| 0:05.2 | fellow copper from down in Miami-Dade County, Florida, Bert Gonzalez. And, you know, I worked all the |
| 0:13.8 | jobs on the police department, mainly spent my time in intelligence, so that's why I focused on |
| 0:19.0 | organized crime. But I worked all the rest of the jobs, almost all of them. I never was a wheelman. But other than that, I think I did everything. And Bert's done a lot of things, too. So welcome, Burke. Thank you, Gary. Appreciate it. Glad to be here. And guys, you need to know, and we'll talk about this later. Bert has a book out there about his career and some great stories called the real greatest |
| 0:40.9 | show on earth. |
| 0:41.6 | And believe me, Bert, it is the real greatest show on earth, isn't it? |
| 0:46.0 | Well, that's why I named the book that. |
| 0:48.9 | I was thinking about what is it that we do and what do we call it out there ourselves in the street |
| 0:55.5 | and the homes of, you know, our citizens and everything. |
| 0:59.3 | And really, it's a circus. |
| 1:01.5 | So that's where I came up with that. |
| 1:03.4 | True circus. |
| 1:04.8 | All right now, tell the guys a little bit about, you know, your department that you, |
| 1:08.6 | you spent your time in and how you ended up going on that department and a little bit about the you know, your department that you, you spent your time in and, and how you ended up |
| 1:11.4 | going on that department and a little bit about the history of it and, you know, what it was like |
| 1:18.0 | as you went over the year. So go ahead. So I was with Miami Day Police, formerly known as Metro |
| 1:23.9 | Day Police when I joined in 1983. And in the areas where my family moved here from New York, |
| 1:30.8 | and I followed a year later, the area was unincorporated Day County at the time. It wasn't called |
| 1:38.7 | Miami-Dadee County yet. And so the police of the jurisdiction was Metro Day Police. |
| 1:46.5 | And our neighbor behind our house, Bob Johns, was a sergeant with Metro. |
| 1:52.1 | So then all of my interactions, I've seen Metro everywhere. |
| 1:55.9 | And then as I got to know Bob and I got to know more about the department, |
... |
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