Drug Crimes

Puerto Rico's Wave of Drugs and Brazen Murders Reverberates to Miami

See the slide show "Puerto Rico Awash in Violence and Drugs."

Puerto Rico Violence Calls Into Question America's War on Drugs

For this week's cover story on the soaring murder rate in Puerto Rico, I spent five days on the island. I visited crime scenes still wet with blood, picked up AK-47 shells sprayed around neighborhoods like confetti, and interviewed terrified locals.But at the heart of the Caribbean commonwealth's ki ... More >>

Authorities Still Looking for Man Who Might Have Fed Murder Victim to Alligators Two Years Ago

In February 2011 near Homestead, a Department of Transportation worker discovered an alligator with a man's body in its mouth, thrashing him back and forth. It didn't turn out to be a case of a man going for a swim in the wrong pond. After investigating, authorities determined the man had been ... More >>

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

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.

Florida Woman Had Plans to Cook Meth Before and After Meth-Related Court Appearance

For Joleen Crisp and her 65-year-old associate Renter Pete Atwood, it's all meth all the time. Police found the duo cooking meth in a Daytona Beach Shores motel just hours before Crisp, 32, was scheduled to appear in court for previous charges on making meth.

Buju Banton: Five More Years in Jail

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 >>

Hialeah Gardens Cop Lawrence Perez Gets 12 Years For Stealing Marijuana

Read "Hialeah Gardens Cop Lawrence Perez Shows How Drugs Can Corrupt Police."A Hialeah Gardens Police detective who was helping his pals rip off marijuana dealers got 151 months in federal prison yesterday. Miami New Times profiled Lawrence Perez in June after a jury found him guilty of two felony c ... More >>

After Griselda Blanco's Death, Mickey Munday Is Last Cocaine Cowboy Standing

Read: "Michael Corleone Blanco lives in the shadow of his cocaine-queen mother""Jon Roberts, Smuggler in Cocaine Cowboys, Dies""Griselda Blanco, Miami's Cocaine Queen, Assassinated In Medellin Butcher Shop""Cocaine king Max Mermelstein came out of hiding for a screenwriter"The golden years hasn't tu ... More >>

Hialeah Gardens Cop Lawrence Perez Shows How Drugs Can Corrupt Police

Florida Teen Gets Three DUIs in a Month but Avoids Jail Because She Didn't Realize Smoking Weed Could Lead to a DUI

Kimberly McCarthy, an 18-year-old Tampa woman, racked up three DUIs in an 18-day span this spring, which seems like a mixture of serious problems, serious stupidity, and serious bad luck (who knows how many times she was driving under the influence and didn't get caught?). But the teen won't be faci ... More >>

Feds Bust Massive Marijuana Grow House Network, Arrest 13 on Drug and Murder Charges

Federal prosecutors announced today the arrest of 13 men and women for their involvement in a massive network of marijuana grow houses in Miami.Feds say that the network was run by baby-faced con Gilberto Santiesteban Jr. and three of his brothers. According to several indictments, the family operat ... More >>

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 >>

Buju Banton is innocent

Don't Set Up a Growhouse Next Door to a School Like These Three Kendall Men

​If you're going to take the risk of setting up an illegal marijuana growhouse, it's best to take just the littlest bit of caution and make sure that growhouse isn't directly next door to a school where kids as young as kindergarteners study.Three Miami men weren't so smart and set up shop right a ... More >>

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 >>

John Stirling, Captain Caught With 800 Lbs Of Coke, Took Photos Atop Giant Piles of Cash

​Sure, John Philip Stirling may be Canadian, but he's also the most Miami-flavored drug smuggler to land in local federal court since the heyday of the Cocaine Cowboys. When he was caught at sea last week off Colombia with 800 pounds of coke, the good captain flat-out told the feds: "There's nothi ... 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 >>

$75K Worth of Pot Found in U. Miami Student and His Twin Brother's Apartment

via Facebook​Two twin brothers, one an FIU student and another a UM student who was on track to become a Marine officer, have found themselves on the wrong side of the law after about $75,000 worth of marijuana plants were found in their shared South Miami apartment. The discovery was made after a ... More >>

John Stirling, Canadian Busted With 800 Lbs of Coke, Tells FBI "There's Nothing Wrong With Cocaine Trafficking"

​A tip for all you would-be cocaine kingpins: When the FBI catches you off the coast of Colombia with more than 800 pounds of yeyo stashed in your boat, do not argue that "there is nothing wrong with cocaine trafficking." That's exactly the tact John Philip Stirling, a 60-year-old Canadian captain ... More >>

$7.6 Million Worth of Pot Seized at Port of Miami

​U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they haven't made a huge pot bust at the Port of Miami for months, but sometimes you just have to wait. Authorities report they discovered 3,837 pounds of marijuana, nearly two tons, stuffed inside shipping containers at the port last Friday.

Submarines and Cocaine: 56 Members of "Bandas Criminales" Indicted for Trafficking

​More than 50 members of the Colombian "Bandas Criminales" (AKA BACRIM) drug-trafficking organization have been rounded up after a joint operation based out of Miami. It's the biggest bust of the emerging drug-trafficking gang since Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern Di ... More >>

Big Boi Busted For Two Different Kinds of Ecstasy and Viagra in Miami

​TMZ is reporting that rapper and one half of OutKast, Big Boi (AKA Antwan Patton), has been arrested in the Magic City.The charges are three counts of possession of a controlled substance (MDMA, Ecstasy and...Viagra?) and one count of drug paraphernalia. All four charges are felonies in Miami-Dad ... 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 >>

Miami Drug Smuggler Pleads Guilty, Has His Plane Taken Away

Will somebody wake him up for his mugshot please?​A 50-year-old Colombian drug kingpin was fined $1 million and sentenced to 22 years in prison Wednesday by a federal judge in Miami. And that was the plea deal.Edgar Vellejo-Guarin was indicted in 2001 after Coast Guard officers discovered 4,000 ki ... More >>

Bolivia's Former Top Drug Cop Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Cocaine Into Miami

​Retired Gen. Rene Sanabria, who once ran Bolivia's national anti-narcotics police unit, has pleaded guilty in a Miami court to smuggling cocaine. Sanabria and his co-conspirators were arrested in March and charged with trying to sneak about 315 pounds of cocaine into the Port of Miami.

High Times

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 >>

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 >>

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.

Andres Lopez exposes the Colombian cartels

Cocaine King Max Mermelstein's Long-Lost Daughter Found Out He Died Through New Times

Courtesy Rochelle Desiree Mermelstein Gomez​Last year, New Times published a feature detailing the strange last days of Max Mermelstein, the master cocaine smuggler who turned snitch in the mid-80s and died under government protection in 2008. Among the readers: Rochelle Desiree Mermelstein ... 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 >>

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum

Phoenix, Arizona: America's kidnapping capital is brutal

A cunning American boy becomes a Mexican cartel soldier and East L.A. executioner

Cowboy Down: Rob Krentz's family talks about the life and death of the murdered Arizona rancher

Badlands: From ground zero of the immigration crisis along the Mexican border

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 >>

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 >>

Latin America's Top Ten Lady Drug Smugglers: An Illustrated Guide

Police are after a former beauty queen who's accused of being the ringleader of a gang of pinups who also work as international drug smugglers. Angie San Clemente Valencia is a bosomy 30-year-old Colombian who's accused of paying her merry band of strumpets $5,000 for carrying pounds of blow from Me ... More >>

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

Black Tuna Gang Leader Gets Out of Jail

Robert Platshorn was the first big bust of the War on Drugs. Almost 30 years later, he's free and talking.

Marijuana Goes Upstate

Florida moves into the number two spot when it comes to grow houses

Jump-Out Boys

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

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