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Smuggler Steve Lamb dies; upcoming film tells his story
Steve Lamb, the St. Pete Beach native whose drug-smuggling exploits made him a counterculture hero – and a convicted felon – died Feb. 28 while in hospice care, following a lengthy illness. He was 71.
Stephen Garrett Lamb was a member of the Steinhatchee Seven, arrested in 1973 after boating in nine tons of marijuana from Jamaica, and attempting to bring it ashore in rural Dixie County, north of Crystal River. For a time, it was the largest drug bust in United States history.
Lamb, who was 20 at the time, spent 20 months in prison. In 1977, wanted again on drug charges, he skipped town and spent the next 11 years out of the country, mostly in Venezuela, where he continued to operate a smuggling operation.
He was released from prison in 2003 and remained in the area until his death.
Jimmy Buffett, left, and Steve Lamb in 1975.
Lamb was interviewed for The Green Flash, a new documentary about 1970s and the coastal Florida marijuana smuggling business. The film from directors Ethan Payne and Jodi Cash will have its world premiere Friday, April 26 as part of the 2024 Sunscreen Film Festival, at the AMC Sundial Theatres in St. Petersburg.
The Green Flash is based in part on Lamb’s 2010 memoir The Smugglers Ghost: When Marijuana Turned a Florida Teen into a Millionaire Fugitive.
Gene Proulx, Special Agent in Charge of NOAA’s Southeast Region (ret.), Office of Law Enforcement, had this to say about The Smugglers Ghost: “The story of Steve Lamb is Florida history in its finest telling. Too often as we look back at the events that shaped our present world we forget to look at the person who emerges from our midst to cause social change that could never have been predicted. If you smoked your first joint at a rock concert in the ‘60s or ‘70s then you might want to read the saga of one of the men who made it possible.”
Smuggling, Lamb told The Bitter Southerner in 2016, was the “best time of my life. I don’t regret anything. I’m happy; the good Lord blessed me. I’ve got nothin’ to complain about; duddn’t do any good, anyway.
“No, I just believe in giving thanks and being happy for all things, it’s just a good way to go.”
Lamb is survived by his wife and three children. Plans for a memorial service have not been announced.
Tim rydstrom
April 30, 2024at10:35 am
Had a chance to sit and have a beer with this guy at TI Laguna Lane with Everett, rice and company. Neat to hear the story’s.
Mike J
April 17, 2024at12:22 pm
It truly was an honor to throw bales with you Bo. If only you had gone back to Venezuela after we renewed contact with Boobs things might have been much different.
As for the documentary some changes from your book need to be made. Posey was no hero. You didn’t know, because you left before hand, but Posey had nothing at all to do with bringing down Cotes. Posey was first a snake, when he went back to the ONE unload he was at, and tried to steal the connection, then quickly became a RAT when he realized that the “connection” had been busted and was working with the Feds.
Rhonda Romano
April 16, 2024at1:08 pm
I grew up on st pete beach and hung with a lot of these guys. RIP fellows! Good times!
Memphis
April 11, 2024at4:39 am
I knew many of these guys in my 14 years of sailing there. Those 2 a.m. runs into Miller’s marina. Aways a sweat. Florida has sure changed a lot. Mad beach. Jimmy and the coral reefers. Pauly who taught me to sail.Blind pass. Dangerous games. But damn wouldn’t have missed it for the world
Kim Polk
March 11, 2024at9:25 am
RIP Bo. Give small craft a hug from me. I love and miss you both.
Debbie
March 8, 2024at7:33 pm
One of a kind. I was blessed to have been called his friend. Party in heaven with, Rusty, Joe,Denny,Mike, Joellen,Jimmy and all the original pirates.
Lauren Lopez
March 8, 2024at4:44 pm
First Rusty and now Steve…they’re dying off. It was a wild time.
Larry Pattersony
March 8, 2024at10:57 am
Was he any friends or associates with Tony Darwin?
I know Tony when I lived on St Pete Beach.
Nick
March 7, 2024at10:58 pm
A hell of a story,hell of a guy and a good friend! You go Bo.👍