David Shanks spent most of his law enforcement career working on Jose Miguel Battle and his mafia organization known as The Corporation. Jose Miguel Battle started his life as a corrupt police sergeant taking bribes from american mobsters like Meyer Lansky and passing them along to corrupt Cuban officials in the Batista government. Battle joined the CIA backed anti-Castro revolutionaries and was captured at the Bay of Pigs. Jose Miguel Battle became known as the "Hero of the Bay of Pigs." Once the American government freed Battle and his fellow revolutionaries from a Cuban prison, he came to south Florida with a brand new plan. He wanted to be part of the Italian La Cosa Nostra mafia. It is said he watched the Godfather dozens of times. Jose Miguel Battle approached Tampa boss, Santos Trafficante Jr. and was granted permission to form subordinate crime organization under the protection of the Trafficante Family. All he had to do was earn money and pay the Trafficante family a share. From here, Battle started running bolita games and slowly took over all the existing bolita organizations from Florida to New Jersey and even into New York City. Having all the south Florida criminal contacts soon steered him to the cocaine business by the 1980s. using his criminal contacts, Battle became one of the most successful cocaine dealers on the east coast. Jose Miguel Battle with an iron hand and murder was most often his choice in a dispute.
David Shanks, of the Miami/Dade Organized Crime Division, made his life's work into investigating The Corporation and Jose Miguel Battle. David is now retired and your podcast host became friends with him over the past year. While he granted a well known true crime writer, T. J. English, the rights to tell his story in the book, The Corporation, David lived this story and is in the studio to give our Wiretappers his first hand account of this epic investigation.
David reports that the book has already been optioned to Paramount for a motion picture, They have signed Benicio Del Toro to play the part of Battle and Leonardo DiCaprio to produce the movie and to play the part of David Shanks.
 


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