Innisbrook Resort has played host to this week’s Valspar Championship since it was founded back in 2000, but what you probably didn’t know was that it also was the venue for one of the largest undercover drug cartel takedowns in U.S. history.
Golf Channel’s George Savaricas recounts the tale, which began back in 1986, where U.S. Customs Service special agent Robert Mazur went undercover as “Bob Musella” to become a pivotal player for drug lords, such as Pablo Escobar, cleaning their dirty cash in an operation called “C-Chase.”
As the story goes, after two years of being undercover, a wedding for Musella and his “bride” was to be held at Innisbrook Resort in an effort to get all the cartel in one place.
Typically the cartel would be hesitant to go to an event like this, but this was at one of the nicest golf resorts in the area. The thought was who’d really turn down an opportunity to play golf? Genius!
Learn how Innisbrook Resort played a part in one of the biggest undercover drug cartel takedowns in U.S. history: https://t.co/9DaYk99NQB https://t.co/J3cW6BpxH2
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) March 7, 2017
The night prior, they staged a bachelor party at a fancy high-rise in Tampa and escorted the suspects to the event, which turned out to be the final sting. It led to more than 100 indictments and over $600 million in fines and forfeitures. It also found the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the seventh largest privately held bank in the world at the time, liable for laundering the drug money.
Mazur’s story was published into a book titled The Infiltrator, which was then adapted into the 2016 screenplay starring Bryan Cranston.
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