Cocaine Cowboy fugitive gets high-caliber criminal defense hired gun

The man considered the last of the Cocaine Cowboys, recently captured fugitive Gustavo Falcon, will have heavyweight representation after Howard Srebnick filed a notice of temporary appearance as counsel Thursday afternoon.

Srebnick’s the second name in Black, Srebnick, Kornspan & Stumpf, the Miami criminal defense firm often sought by those with serious money facing serious charges. The “Black” comes from famed criminal defense attorney Roy Black, who represented William Kennedy Smith in his rape trial in Palm Beach County; Smith was acquitted.

Srebnick’s quite familiar with Falcon’s case. He represented Orlando Lorenzo “Bennie B,” indicted in 1991 along with Falcon and eight others on various charges connected to being major drug dealers. Lorenzo struck a plea deal with the government and served 14 years in federal prison.

Falcon was arrested in Kissimmee on Wednesday after 26 years on the lam. He and his wife, who had assumed the names of Luis Andre Reiss and Maria Reiss, were returning from a 40-mile bike ride when deputy U.S. marshals from Miami arrested him at an intersection in Kissimmee.

Falcon was last seen in South Florida shortly before he was indicted in 1991 on charges of conspiring to import and distribute 75 tons of cocaine worth $2 billion with his brother Willie Falcon, partner Salvadore “Sal” Magluta and about a dozen other defendants between 1978 and 1991.