Netflix debuts bizarre documentary of how entire island got addicted to cocaine after drug smuggling goes wrong

Netflix has released a documentary detailing the wild story on how bags of cocaine began washing up on an island and chaos ensued.

Drug deals likely go wrong all the time, but rarely does this result in an entire island of people getting addicted to Schedule II drugs.

Well, that is exactly what happened to a village of people on an island just west of Portugal, São Miguel, back in June 2001.

And we aren’t talking just a few bags here and there, the island ended up being flooded with so much cocaine that many people on the island, who had never touched drugs, got addicted to cocaine at young ages.

Much of the population of Rabo de Peixe were so removed from drug use that some women began using the powder to bread their fish, thinking it was flour.

Children even stumbled upon the massive book-sized bags of cocaine and were using it to draw outlines for their football games, thinking it was chalk.

Police have previously commented on just how widespread the cocaine was and how it became an issue for the youngest on the island.

Stories circulated how some women had used the cocaine to bread fish thinking it was flour (Netflix)

Police inspector Jose Lopes said: “Beer glasses of cocaine were going for €5 each.

“It was a nightmare. Some kids who had never even touched a cigarette started using cocaine.”

The documentary, Turn of the Tide: The Surreal Story of Rabo de Peixe, is now available on Netflix and details exactly how this bizarre set of events happened, interviewing individuals who got involved in the drug trade as a result and those who were living on the island at the time.

So what happened?

Italian Antonino Quinci, a drug smuggler who was already known to authorities, was in the process of ferrying uncut cocaine from Venezuela to Spain on behalf of a Spanish criminal syndicate and had crossed the Atlantic at least twice that year on other smuggling operations.

But this time, things went terribly wrong.

Quinci had diverted to São Miguel because the yacht he was using to ferry the drugs had been battered by a storm and his rudder was damaged.

Not wanting to return to a shipyard with millions of dollars worth of uncut drugs, for obvious reasons, Quinci attempted to hide his drugs in a cave and ferry it to shore in a dingy.

Police confiscated almost $50 million dollars worth of cocaine that had circulated the island (Netflix)

However, he was spotted by a fisherman’s boat and had to change up his plans, then attempting to sink his remaining cargo, wrapping the bundles in plastic before submerging them with chains, rocks and an anchor.

Unfortunately for the alleged drug smuggler, another storm surge would quickly batter the cliffs and ultimately dislodge the anchor, allowing for the massive bricks of cocaine to begin drifting towards the island.

In just about two weeks police were able to confiscate around half a metric tonne of cocaine, worth about $53 million dollars today.

Quinci eventually served 10 years in prison for drug trafficking and operating under a false identity, before being arrested again in 2021 for smuggling hashish into Brazil and serving another eight years.

The island only had 140,000 inhabitants at the time and while some people reported the findings to the authorities, others quickly pocketed it, triggering a wild set of events for the islanders.

Turn of the Tide: The Surreal Story of Rabo de Peixe is available to watch on Netflix from Friday October 17.