| Photo: Tim McBride/News-Press |
| Portrait of the entrepreneur as a young man: Tim McBride at the peak of his pot smuggling days in the 1980s. |
Tim McBride made $5,000 on his very first night as a pot smuggler in 1980.
“Rookie pay,” he said.
He made another five grand the next night, reports the Fort Myers News-Press.
“It was the greatest thing in the world,” McBride said, recalling his introduction to smuggling. “Here I am just 21 years old; I got 10 grand in my pocket.”
What began as a crabbing gig based in Everglades City morphed into a marijuana smuggling business that eventually netted McBride about $25 million. Unfortunately, it also got him four years in federal prison and a $4 million fine.