Backyards of Key West Podcast with Mark Baratto 227: 227 – Key West: A Smuggler’s Tale, by Richard “Conch Boy” Gomez

In this episode, Mark Baratto sits down with published author, Richard “Conch Boy” Gomez to talk about his fictional book based on his own life as a smuggler in Key West during the 80’s.

More on Key West: A Smuggler’s Tale

In Key West: A Smuggler’s Tale, we meet Bobby Campo, a journalist and native of Key West who is writing his first novel about a subject that has interested him for a number of years. His interview begins with a legendary Key West smuggler, a childhood friend of his very straight-laced father and mother (or so he thought).

In the early 1970s until the early 1980s, Norberto Belafonte Diaz smuggled marijuana into the Keys. During the interview he takes Bobby on a winding trail, not only down the backroads of their island home but also down the backroads of that dark history. Bobby is introduced to some of the most memorable characters of that time, each with their own adventure-filled stories.

But unbeknownst to Bobby, Norberto is leading him down a path that he has chosen carefully.

Key West: A Smuggler’s Tale teaches us in the end that under the watchful eye of fate, old wounds can be finally healed.

About the Author

Richard now resides with the love of his life Michelle, in Jensen Beach, Fl. They both enjoy the retired life. When not traveling they wake each morning to the sound and sight of the ocean as it touches the shore. Life’s adventures have turned to memories of a life worth living. Richard plans to continue to write about life on a spit of land surrounded by ocean far far away from normal, but always his idea of paradise. Key West, the place where his dreams became realities. Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Conchboy123/ Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Key-West-Richard-Conch-Gomez/dp/B0CBW589HP