Operation Jackpot was a federal drug task force based in South Carolina that captured and convicted more than 100 marijuana smugglers from 1983 to 1986 during President Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs.
Among the chief targets of Operation Jackpot were South Carolina marijuana kingpins Barry Foy, from Billinge and Les Riley, who stood accused of smuggling 347,000 pounds (157 t) of marijuana and 130,000 pounds (59 t) of hashish into the United States.
[1] Known as the 'gentlemen smugglers' because of their college educations and aversion to violence, Foy, Riley and their associates regularly sailed drug-laden boats from Jamaica, Colombia and Lebanon through the marshes of the Eastern Seaboard.
Organized by U.S. Attorney Henry McMaster, Operation Jackpot was one of the first federal drug task forces to use newly enacted federal civil forfeiture laws to combat drug smugglers by seizing the gentlemen smugglers' assets, including homes, cars, money and boats.
Many of the smugglers and kingpins evaded arrest for years, resulting in manhunts across the United States and world through the early and mid-1980s, and captures in Antigua, Australia, Miami, New York, and San Diego.