2013 crash with bicyclist sealed last 'Cocaine Cowboy's' fate, marshals say

ORLANDO, Fla. — The last of the infamous Cocaine Cowboys alive and not in jail was arrested Wednesday and investigators said it was a traffic crash in 2013 that marked the eventual end of his 26-year run from the law.

Gustavo "Taby" Falcon, 55, was arrested shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday and booked into the Orange County Jail.

U.S. marshals said Falcon was the last of the Cocaine Cowboys, a group known for drug trafficking in South Florida during the late 1980s.

Prosecutors said in an indictment that Falcon had been on the run for 26 years, using "Luis Andre Reiss" as his alias since at least 1997.

He was tracked down living with his wife in Kissimmee, just 240 miles from the office where U.S. Marshals spent decades following leads in the case.

"He was doing something right staying under the radar of law enforcement all that time," said Barry Golden, with the U.S. Marshal's Office.

Marshals said they arrested Falcon and his wife, Amelia Falcon, at the intersection of Funie Street Road and Lindfields Boulevard in Kissimmee after they took a 40-mile bicycle ride.

"This is a fugitive who was on 'America's Most Wanted' in 2008," Golden said. "We got numerous tips from 'America's Most Wanted' (but) none of them in the Orlando area. None of them in the Miami area. Some in Colorado Springs (saying) that he was working various jobs."

Falcon and his wife Ameila, who was going by the name Maria Reiss, had been living in a rental house in Kissimmee since 2012.

"He never used an address on that fake (driver's license) where he was living," Golden said. "He was smarter than that.

It took a while for Falcon to admit his real name, but eventually he admitted he wasn't who he was claiming to be," Golden said.

"He maintained his name was Luis Reiss for a matter of time, until the deputy marshals said, 'We're going to go fingerprint you. It's just a matter of time before we find out who you are,'" Golden said. "It was that point in time he admitted his name was Gustavo Falcon."

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