Cocaine

Banah Sugar Employed Ex-Cocaine Traffickers, Raised Bundles for Dominican President Before Bankruptcy

Bankrupt Banah Sugar Employed Ex-Coke Traffickers and Raised Thousands For Dominican President

As his Hialeah sugar company burned through cash and failed to pay employees, vendors, and landlords, Alexander I. Perez gave plum jobs to former drug-trafficker buddies and raised bundles of cash for Danilo Medina, president of the Dominican Republic.Two weeks ago, Perez's Banah Sugar filed for Cha ... More >>

Will Smith's Brother-in-Law Arrested in Miami Coke Deal Sting

He may be Will Smith's brother-in-law, but Dee Lawrence Downs did not get a very warm welcome to Miami.Downs, who is married to Smith's younger sister Ellen, was arrested last month after he fell into a cocaine trafficking sting operation.

$2.7 Million Worth of Cocaine Seized at Miami Airport

It takes a lot of balls to straight up pack your luggage full of nothing but cocaine. For an unknown drug trafficker that gamble didn't pay off.Federal customs agents at Miami International Airport uncovered 230 pounds of cocaine packed inside three suitcases yesterday.

Buju Banton: Five More Years in Jail

Mugshots Friday: What Goes Around Comes Around

Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to that ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: Ben Franklin and Big Bad Bearded Guys

Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to that ... More >>

Florida Rapper Money-Clipz Sentenced 30 Years for Possession of 300 Grams of Crack

Tampa rapper Money-Clipz has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for possession of over 28 grams of crack cocaine with an intent to distribute. Jeez Louise! First, they tell you that sharing is caring and then they throw you in jail for caring too much. Mixed messages, you guys. If 30 yea ... More >>

Mentally Disabled Woman Sues Liberty City Care Facility After Sexual Assault, Forced Abortion

A mentally disabled woman is now suing the Liberty City living facility where she was sexually assaulted and impregnated by a caretaker.Two years ago, 27-year-old Katrina Whitehead arrived at Westchester Hospital with stomach swelling. Instead, doctors quickly discovered that she was four months pre ... More >>

Hialeah Gardens Cop Lawrence Perez Shows How Drugs Can Corrupt Police

Miami-Dade Police Lured Robbers to the Redland, Then Shot Them

Miami-Dade TNT Unit Loses the War on Drugs and Liberty City's Trust

Mugshots Friday: He's Sexy and He Knows It

​Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to th ... More >>

Cyclist Aaron Cohen Dies After Rickenbacker Hit-and-Run; Driver Michele Traverso Arrested

​Aaron Cohen, one of the two bicyclist who were injured in an early morning hit-and-run car crash on the Rickenbacker Causeway on Wednesday morning, has died.Meanwhile, police have arrested the driver Michele Traverso, 25, after he turned himself in early this morning. Traverso was driving with a ... More >>

1,300 Pot Plants Seized After 25 Miami Grow Houses Busted in "Operation Machete"

​Twenty-five people were arrested yesterday after Miami-Dade police discovered 25 separate hydroponics labs in the county during a crackdown dubbed "Operation Machete." Besides the alleged criminals, police also seized more than 1,300 pot plants during the daylong sweep.

How I Met Your Mother, Who Also Had a Slit Throat Tattoo

​Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro t ... More >>

Stynx, Shark Teeth, and the Funnest Guy at the Racetrack

​Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro t ... More >>

Miamians Now Too Poor to Be Cocaine Addicts

​The way we snort now: with less frequency and with less potent cocaine. The Miami Herald crunched the numbers (which aren't exactly anything new) and found cocaine use has declined in South Florida. That doesn't mean the War on Drugs has actually worked. Of course not. We're just doing cheaper dr ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: Mr. Babyhair, Future Justin Bieber and a Cranium Tarantula

​​Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to ... More >>

High Times

Buju Banton Found Guilty in Cocaine Case

​Despite a triumphant concert in Miami and a Grammy win within the last few months, Buju Banton's dark days are not behind him. After an initial trial on drug charges was declared a mistrial, Banton has been found guilty of conspiring to set up a Florida cocaine deal back in 2009.

Today In Cocaine: Ten Busted in Juarez-to-Miami Ring, Colombian Coke Lord Due In Federal Court

​It's already been a busy week for the drug that made Miami -- or at least for the feds' perpetual war on the white stuff. First, the DEA arrested 10 people, mostly from Miami and Hialeah, and charged them with organizing a ring shuttling coke from Juarez to South Florida.Then came word that a muc ... More >>

Massive Police Sting Nets 2,369 Pounds of Pot Worth $9.4 Million

A massive sting on Wednesday uncovered 49 hydroponic labs in Miami-Dade and put 42 people behind bars. The pot is believed to have a street value of $9.2 million. Police also found 11 grams of cocaine, 40 grams of processed marijuana, 126 Oxycontin pills, an Audi, and $9,562 in cash.The sting, known ... More >>

Fifteen Members of "Murda Grove Boys" Gang Arrested by FBI

A handmade t-shirt displaying the group's insignia with guns we found on one possible members MySpace​The Murda Grove Boys are not, as their name would suggest, a horror-core boy band but actually one of Miami-Dade's most violent criminal gangs. CBS4 reports that Miami Gardens police, the FBI and ... More >>

Eighty Percent of Cocaine Contains Chemical That Will Rot Your Flesh

​We've seen some coke heads practically descend into a zombie-like state where they become completely devoid of normal human emotion and only fixate on their next fit like they were in a George Romero movie looking for brains (pure, uncut Bolivian marching brains). Well, now co ... More >>

Charles Bennett Is Called "Krazy Horse" Because He's 100 Percent Normal

C.StilesCharles "Krazy Horse" Bennett Seeks a title and an end to his madness.​When it comes to second chances, Charles Daniel Bennett Jr. will take four, five, six, and however many more he can get. Nicknamed Krazy Horse, the Ocala native has been one of the most scandalous characters to step int ... More >>

The murder of Stevie Febonio: South Florida's marijuana grow houses can be a deadly business

Cocaine Blamed for Global Warming

British Models: Your Government is concerned that your love of cocaine is killing trees, and then what will you dry hump in black lingerie?​Those of us who like to "ski" might be making it harder for those of us who want to, you know, actually ski. Apparently, members of the British Parliament are ... More >>

Liberty City Violence claims a boxing promoter's son, UPDATED

On Thursday, Riptide finds Roosevelt Ivory, Sr. stepping out of a white Lincoln Navigator, accompanied by an apparent bodyguard, at his two-house compound on Northwest 69th Terrace in Liberty City. It's advertised as "Roosevelt's Rooming House" in the White Pages, but this certainly is no Days Inn. ... More >>

Prunk TV: Featuring Marilyn Manson

via www.marilynmansonartworkonline.com'When I Get Old,' by Marilyn MansonMarilyn Manson's paintings are much better than his music. Just kidding; we love ya, Marilyn! His solo show, Trismegistus, debuted this past December during Art Basel Miami Beach. But if you missed the super-VIP opening, don't ... More >>

The Spencer Davis Group

What Pete Did Next

The nine (and counting?) lives of Brit-rock’s weirdly compelling screwup

Break the Habit

John Schmidt will save Danny. Come hell or a good high.

Crackhead Camera!

These guys make Girls Gone Wild look lame

Graham CRACKer Crust Bust

Who knew “New York-style cheesecake” meant “with a side of crack”?

To Each Theron

Jump-Out Boys

Scheming snitches, dirty detectives, intrepid investigators. This ain't The Shield's Strike Team.

Miami: See It Like a Drug Dealer

During Miami's cocaine heyday in the Eighties, weird and interesting and scary things happened all over town all the time. Our coke map of Miami is by necessity incomplete, but even selected highlights make the point: Blow knew no neighborhood boundaries.

Until Proven Guilty

24 HOURS. 1 FULL MOON. 265 Arrests.

BEST LOCAL BOY GONE BAD

Ric Sisser

BEST LOCAL GIRL GONE BAD

Denise Calvo

Denise Calvo: Murder Suspect

Tales of illicit affairs, heavy drug use, prostitutes, a strained marriage -- no wonder police are suspicious

Porch Patrol

Brownsville resident Lorenzo Jones is waging a one-man war against the drug dealing across the street

Best Defense

Our Hero the Drug Dealer

The feds call Rickey Brownlee one of South Florida's biggest narco-traffickers. His friends and neighbors in Opa-locka call him a valiant victim.

Dynasty

Search and Schnauzer

North Miami Beach's drug squad shows dogged determination -- and an interesting interpretation of the Constitution

Bodies and Souls

A young pastor aims his church's meager resources at some of Miami's neediest.

In Havana, On Drugs

As faith in the revolution sinks to new lows, kids in Cuba are getting high

Junkies

It alters perceptions and skews the ability to tell right from wrong. Ultimately, it results in a dysfunctional society. But it's not a drug. It's the War on Drugs.