Even after prison, Lowcountry drug smugglers say, ‘We weren’t doing anything wrong’

Thirty years have passed since a major federal drug investigation led to 200 people being charged in the Lowcountry.

Boosted by today’s changing view of the “War on Drugs” and the legality of marijuana, several ‘Operation Jackpot’ defendants who spent a lot of time in jail say today they did nothing wrong.

They’re speaking out in a trailer for a proposed documentary film by Black Bear Studios in Charleston. It’s based on a book by former Beaufort Gazette reporter Jason Ryan and called “The Gentlemen Smugglers.”

In the trailer for the documentary, which is not yet funded, Robert Leslie “Les” Riley says: “We certainly would not break in a house or steal a car. I didn’t think marijuana was anything except for having a good time and getting hungry.”

Cleveland “Skip” Sanders, who grew up in Beaufort and served four years after being convicted in 1984, says: “I don’t feel like we were really doing anything detrimental. We were breaking the law, but so is jaywalking. You going to lock me up for 10 years for that too?”

Asked if he felt like he did anything wrong, kingpin Barry “Flash” Foy told the Packet and Gazette emphatically in a rumbling bass voice, “Hail no.”

“If you look back on it now,” Foy continued, “we already knew what people know today. We weren’t doing anything wrong. People were beating the doors down to get more of it. Nobody was holding a gun to anyone’s head to make them buy pot.

“The government has had such an intense campaign, all the way back to the ’30s and the movie ‘Reefer Madness,’ and it never stopped. But, believe me, pot has been helping people for a long time. They can sleep better, or be in less pain. And now you see that it’s legal in a lot of places.”

Asked if it bothered him that a lot of people’s lives were hurt in the smuggling operation, Foy again boomed, “Hail no.”

“They were all 21 and over,” he said. “Nobody ever made anybody do anything.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 10:11 AM with the headline "Even after prison, Lowcountry drug smugglers say, ‘We weren’t doing anything wrong’."