As powerboat builder to the most powerful people in the world, Donald Aronow counted among his clients the Shah of Iran, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Malcolm Forbes, and George H.W. Bush. “We talked about fast boats, fast horses, fast women and he was wonderful and a lot of fun to be around,†said Bush senior of Aronow. After making his money in the 1950s construction industry in New Jersey, Aronow moved to Miami in 1961 and turned his boat racing hobby into multiple flourishing boat building businesses. His new designs and innovative technology brought his creations not only into the toy chests of the wealthy but made his incredibly fast speedboats a popular choice among cocaine smugglers.
Drug smuggling and cocaine-related crime dominated the news throughout the early 1980s as South Florida and specifically Miami became a major cocaine transshipment point for drugs to enter the United States. Aronow was at the epicenter of it all … Details