Crime and Law

Teen porn star Bieyanka Moore's disaster

Reality Kings sued for casting a 15-year-old runaway in a porn

Bieyanka Moore, Reality Kings' 15-Year-Old Porn Star?

Right: photo from Bieyanka Moore's Myspace; Left: C.S.'s missing child photo.​In January 2010, a 15-year-old girl from Palm Beach Shores -- though her name has already been broadcasted on the internet, we'll call her C.S. -- ran away from home. Eight months later, porn site Reality Kings, owned ... More >>

Kids claim abuse and violence at juvenile lockup Thompson Academy

Wachovia Now Off the Hook for Laundering Mexican Drug Money

Off the hook for millions in money laundering.​Happy Anniversary, Wachovia!A year after the bank admitted to laundering hundreds of millions in Mexican drug money -- and paying $160 million in fines and penalties -- the company is now off the hook for further punishment.According to the British pa ... More >>

ICE Agent Charged with Molesting 16-Year-Old

​Neil Julien, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, has been arrested on charges that he molested a 16-year-old girl back in 2005. According to NBC Miami, he allegedly molested the girl multiple time during the summer of 2005 while dating the girl's mother. The charges surfaced af ... More >>

Rick Scott's racist clemency rules

No Clemency For Felons Means Southern Racism Is Back

​Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke explains why Rick Scott is helping the criminal justice system keep African-Americans down. Last week, Florida Gov. ... More >>

The Interrupters: Gang-bangers interrupted

Miami waiter Eddie Santana is a restaurant rebel

Rene Sanabria, Bolivia's Former Top Drug Cop, Accused of Smuggling Cocaine to Miami

via PlusBoliviaRene Sanabria helped smuggle 220 lbs of cocaine into Miami.​From top drug cop to accused cocaine smuggler. That's the story of Retired Gen. Rene Sanabria. From 2007 to 2008 he ran Bolivia's anti-narcotics police, and since 2009 has been a top adviser to Evo Morales' Interior Minist ... More >>

Andres Lopez exposes the Colombian cartels

ACLU Chief Howard Simon Recalls MLK and Bloody Sunday

Photo by Jacob KatelHoward Simon​American Civil Liberties executive director Howard Simon took part in the last century's most significant freedom march with Dr. Martin Luther King. Then he was part of lawsuits that indicated our own government might have played a role in one of the civil rights m ... More >>

Trailer Park Resident Sues WikiLeaks, Julian Assange for $150M in Miami Court

​Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are currently knee deep in a heap of legal concerns. And their latest, and most ridiculous, comes from a Florida man named David Pitchford who has sued the organization and its figurehead for emotional distress. Pitchford, who lists a Key West trailer park as his addr ... More >>

Culture of cruelty: Feds bury Border Patrol abuses of immigrants

Maintenance Worker Shot on Ocean Drive While Evicting Tenant

​In today's senseless murder news, a maintenance worker was shot dead while helping police evict a tenant from an Ocean Drive apartment in South Beach this morning. The shooter and a police officer were also injured, though neither seriously.

Suicidal Gunman Shoots Two Women and a Toddler in North Miami

via FacebookTavaris FairStephanie Peterson, age 22, was babysitting a young child in the apartment of Kizzy Williams, 31, when her boyfriend showed up ready for an argument. Tavaris Fair, 25, fired several shots in the North Miami apartment before ending his own life after a long standoff with polic ... More >>

Anonymous Phone Call Leads Police to Murder Mystery in NW Dade

​Miami-Dade police didn't hear the gunshots, but they did hear the phone ring. If it wasn't for an anonymous phone call they may not have found the body of a dead man in a Northwest Miami-Dade apartment. Now, with little clues and few apparent witnesses police must solve the mysterious murder.

Partridge Family Star David Cassidy Charged with DUI in South Florida

​I think a lot of people love David Cassidy, so what are they so afraid of? Maybe that he'll swerve into them in his white Mercedes while allegedly driving drunk. Yes, the former teen idol and Partridge Family star, now 60, was arrested in South Florida for driving drunk. When a Florida Highway Pa ... More >>

Police Search for Gunmen: Man Killed Near Barry University, Woman Shot in Miami Gardens

​Police are searching for suspects in two separate firearm attacks that occurred overnight in North Miami-Dade. One was fatal; the other victim is not expected to survive. A 25-year-old man was found shot to death near his black SUV near Barry University in Miami Shores. In the other shooting, a w ... More >>

Suspected Taxi Cab Robber Caught. You're Welcome, Miami Police

Christopher Albert Debanos, charged in connection to a recent string of taxi cab robberies​Miami Police have arrested a suspect in a recent rash of taxi cab robberies.Christopher Albert Debanos, 21, was arrested yesterday on robbery, burglary, and gun charges in connection to as many as seven stic ... More >>

Deadly Miami cabs

Operation Streamline treats migrants like cattle

Babies left in hot cars: Accident or crime?

Some parents are never prosecuted. Antonio Balta got 20 years.

Gambling back in Miami Beach?

Police Investigating Brazen Dinner-Time Robbery and Shootout At Homestead Wendy's

Photo via dave_mcmt's flickr and wikimedia commons.​What's gotten into Miami robbers this week? Just a few days after the made-for-Hollywood heist of a Coral Gables Bank of America -- complete with a kidnapped teller with a bomb strapped to his chest -- another gang of bandits knocked over a Wendy ... More >>

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 >>

DeVito South Beach tip scandal

China Grill, Prime One Twelve Latest to Be Sued by Ex-Employees for Tip Skimming

China Grill in South Beach is in hot water over a recent lawsuit​When we head to most South Beach restaurants, we customers expect to get fleeced: $200 steaks, $50 sushi rolls, $15 mineral water. But the employees? According to two lawsuits filed earlier this summer, fancy South Beach restaurants ... More >>

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum

Phoenix, Arizona: America's kidnapping capital is brutal

Man Found Shot to Death in Truck

via CBS4​In today's news roundup: A dead body is found in a truck, a teacher drives while under the influence of booze and Xanax, and those huge LCD billboards in downtown Miami have a long way to go before they're erected.

Hialeah McDonald's Robbed by Employee Dressed as Ninja

​A McDonald's in Hialeah was robbed not once, but twice by a man dressed like a ninja, in head-to-toe black. Turned out the robberies were perpetrated by Michel Quiroz, an 18-year-old employee at the restaurant. He even continued to show up for work after the robberies, but eventually his co-worke ... More >>

Mafia-Connected Haitian Ponzi Schemer Michael J. Muzio Sentenced to 13.5 Years

​Michael J. Muzio, one of four co-conspirators in a Ponzi scheme that targeted South Florida Haitian-Americans, has been sentenced to 163 months in federal prison. In April, New Times told you about the $14.3 million dollar scheme, which offered to double investors' cash in 90 days. Two of Muzio's ... More >>

Miami Beach Resort Shooting Was Over Drugs, Not Hookers

​Turns out the shooting at the Miami Beach Resort and Spa Saturday had nothing to do with hookers, but drugs. At least that's what the Miami Beach Police Department is saying. Oh, and that weird smell? It was pepper spray.

Dead Men Talking

First Ever Class-Action Suit Over Toxic Chinese Drywall Certified In Miami

As we reported in a January investigation, toxic Chinese drywall is forcing thousands around Florida to make an impossible choice between abandoning brand new homes or exposing their families to dangerous fumes. ​The state continues to drag its feet, protecting politically connected builders. ... More >>

Thirty Killed in Raids of Dudus' Kingston Camp

​The extradition saga of Jamaican druglord Christopher "Dudus" Coke, leader of the ultra-violent South Florida-connected Shower Posse, has become yet more bloody today. The Associated Press is reporting that at least 30 people have been killed in gunfights between bandits, soldiers, and cops in th ... More >>

California Governor Candidate Wants to Put Pedophiles on an Island, Sounds Oddly Familiar

via CurbedLA​A minor candidate in California's governor race has proposed an oddly familiar idea for dealing with convicted sex offenders and pedophiles: he wants to put them all on an island. No, Ron Book has not moved to the Golden State.Douglas Hughes, a dark horse Republican candidate, has mad ... More >>

Venezuela Murder Rate Has Quadrupled Under Hugo Chávez

One person is murdered every two hours in Venezuela, according to new statistics released by the independent Venezuelan Observatory of Violence.The murder rate in the South American country has more than quadrupled since Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999. There were 54 homicides per 100,000 people ... More >>

From Bolivia: Massacre victims get no justice

Unequal Justice

At federal prisons across the country, guards are preying on inmates. FDC Miami is no different.

Sex Offenders Set Up Camp

The Julia Tuttle becomes a colony. Politicians pass the buck.

117 Dead

Since 2000, dozens have died in county jails. Poor medical care has contributed to the problem.

Freedom for Sale, Part 1

A lawyer offered convicts reduced sentences for a price

Jump-Out Boys

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

Miami, Crime, and Urban Design

This is a dangerous place, and dangerously divided as well

Bud Men

Despite the risks, local pot farmers have taken homegrown high-tech

Dynasty

Field of Teens

When you grow up in the migrant labor camps of South Dade, sometimes it's gang life -- and sometimes it's no life