Drug Crimes

Man Arrested During His Florida Honeymoon for Soliciting a Prostitute

Generally, honeymoons should be sex-filled jaunts, but the general rule is that the sex should be with your new spouse, and not, say, an Orlando-area prostitute you met online. Especially when your new spouse doesn't know about it. A 21-year-old man named Mohammed Ahmed was charged with solicitati ... More >>

Colombian 'Nuns' Caught Smuggling Four Pounds of Cocaine in Their Habits

The authorities are onto your old cocaine-stuffed-into-coconuts routine. Your drug subs have been getting busted by the Coast Guard at an alarming rate. Even disguising pounds of cocaine as a replica World Cup trophy didn't work out so well last time you tried. So if you're a Colombian cartel boss ... More >>

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 >>

Florida Woman Caught Smuggling Xanax into Jail Inside Her Private Parts

If you actually are prone to panic and anxiety attacks, being booked into jail may actually be an appropriate time to drop some Xanax. Of course, the process of smuggling Xanax into jail may not actually be worth it. Casey Leigh Cranfield, a 28-year-old resident of Punta Gorda, Florida, was boo ... More >>

Florida Man Butt Dials 911 While Discussing Selling Drugs

There's nothing worse than butt dialing the wrong person at the wrong time, and even in those instances there's probably few things worse than butt dialing 911 while talking about selling drugs.Matthew Dollarhide, 19 of Orange City, Florida, was driving a tow truck with two passengers when all three ... More >>

$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.

Panamanian Woman Busted Smuggling Three Pounds of Cocaine In Breast Implants

Congratulations, cocaine smugglers. You've successfully moved the War on Drugs from island-hopping airplanes to Caribbean submarines to the most daring transportation method yet: Huge breast implants.A Panamanian woman flying out of Bogota, Colombia has been arrested in Spain after cops became suspi ... More >>

A 44-Year-Old Grandma in Sarasota Took Her Granddaughter to a Drug Deal

There are few descriptors more woebegone than "44-year-old Sarasota grandma," and yet this tale is sadder than that even suggests.Michelle Sears, the 44-year-old Sarasota grandmother in question, was stopped on Monday by a local sheriff's deputy for driving with a suspended license. Sears' six-year- ... More >>

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 >>

Tony Galeota: From Running Porky's, Miami's Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting in a Panamanian Jail

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 >>

7-Year-Old Forced to Smoke Pot at Gunpoint

"Honestly officer, I didn't mean to get high. Someone pointed a gun to my head and made me do it.""Yeah, likely story, kid.""No, seriously. I'm a seven-year-old and some crazy f'n mad man pointed a gun to my head and forced me to smoke pot."

Did Top CIA Official Enrique "Ricky" Prado Murder in Miami?

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 >>

U.S. Customs Nabs $7.3 Million in Cocaine at Miami Seaport

What can $7.3 million buy you nowadays? How about 459 pounds of cocaine?That was the amount seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on May 29 at the Miami Seaport. CBP officers discovered 169 bricks of coke in eight cardboard boxes in a shipping container. The container came off a ship that had ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: Daddy's Girl

​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 >>

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

Florida Dad Puts Pot in 6-Year-Old's Backpack

A kindergarten classroom in St. Petersburg had an interesting yet unplanned show and tell recently after a six-year-old student pulled three ounces of marijuana and a scale from their backpack and proclaimed to the classes' teacher, "Look what I got."How'd it get there? Apparently the student's fath ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: The Lost Tenenbaum and Madam Ginger

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 >>

Mr. Panama 2004 Arrested For Cocaine Smuggling at MIA

​Harry Agustin Duncan Maslivar, the winner of the male beauty pageant title of Mr. Panama 2004, looks pretty good in black and white stripped swim trunks. He probably won't looks quite as good in black and white stripped prison garb though. That's what he's facing after being popped for trying to ... More >>

Reader mail: Gay-bashing Buju Banton needs to make peace with the Lord

One-Legged Drug Dealer Attempts to Hop Away from Police in Jacksonville

As the suspect was not Rose McGowan in Planet Terror, he didn't pose much of a threat. ​What do you call a drug dealer with one leg trying to escape from police? Caught.No, this isn't open mic night at the Chuckle Hut, this is quite naturally real Florida news.

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.

Matchmaking With Mugshots, a Nervous Chuckle, and a Beard-Off

​​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 >>

Florida Man Arrested for Trying to Buy Pot at Burger King Drive-Thru

​Sure, Burger King probably makes tons of money from stoners. Who else is going to eat half that menu? Lets be honest, who do you think all those bizarre ads they ran for years were targeted at? But BK is not in the business of selling pot. Thirty-two-year-old Shawn Porter of Deltona, Florida foun ... More >>

Boxer Ivan Calderon's House Had $4 Million of Cocaine Inside, Five Suspects to Be Tried in Miami

ToppsPossible boxing Hall of Famer Ivan Calderon is wrapped up in a massive coke bustFive suspected narcotraffickers from the Dominican Republic are en route to the Miami Federal Detention Center for allegedly smuggling cocaine across the Caribbean.In a strange twist, their arrest seems connected to ... More >>

Opa-Locka Police Captain Arrested for Protecting Murderous Drug Ring

Arthur Balom, an Opa-locka police captain, has been arrested on allegations he helped protect a South Florida drug ring and had knowledge of the murder of a Brinks armed truck guard that happened last year. The arrest was part of an FBI investigation. Three other men, members of the drug ring, were ... More >>

The Bleached-Blonde Carjackers, Gangsta John Waters, and God

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 >>

Girls, Girls, Girls, and a Man With a Very Smooth Head

​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. .

A Boy Named Barbara, Flattop Moustache, And What You See When You Die

​Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week 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 series.

Mugshots Friday: A Meta T-Shirt, A Pimp's Broken Spirit, and Beards, Beards, Beards

​Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week 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 series.

Cocaine in Your Mailbox: Traffickers Increasingly Using Mail to Ship Drugs

​Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will keep your drugs from you, apparently. Drug traffickers are increasingly using U.S. Mail and commercial carriers such as FedEx to ship drugs out of the country. In fact, in Florida alone the amount of cocaine and marijuana being intercepted i ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: Big Ami$h, A Forehead Equation, and Our Friend Tom

​​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 >>

Rick Scott's Brother Is a Welfare Recipient With a History of Drug Charges

​Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a bill that requires all people seeking welfare take mandatory drug tests. Interestingly, it turns out Scott has a younger brother who receives welfare and seems to have a history of drug charges.

State Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff's Daughter Arrested on Drug Charges in Miami-Dade

Sen. Bogdanoff​Danna Bogdanoff, the 19-year-old daughter of Republican state Sen. Ellyn Bogdandoff, was arrested in Miami on Friday and charged with four felonies. Though the police report has not been released yet, it appears that the younger Bogdanoff was arrested for an incident involving a bur ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: The Evil Iglesias, Bladimir, and Gangsta Panda

​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 >>

Uncle Luke says legalize marijuana

Stop Jailing Pot Smokers And Let's Go After The Real Criminals

​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 -- who is a candidate to replace more-boring-than-bread-pudding ex-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez -- makes a campaign pr ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: A Cape, Blue Goop, and Hair, Hair, Everywhere

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

Notre Dame Coach Hopes His Players Don't Get Killed by Mexican Drug Lords

​First year Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly really does seem to have a lot of odd things on his mind in the run up to the Sun Bowl, which will see his team reignite its historical rivalry with the Miami Hurricanes. First, he was just glad that El Paso, Texas, doesn't have nude beaches like the bastio ... More >>

5th Street Gym reopens

Arizona cop's tale of a Latino drug smuggler shooting him doesn't add up

University of Miami Baseball Player Frankie Ratcliff Busted for Selling Pot

​The University of Miami football players have cleaned up their act in a big way, but every once in a while another of the school's sports' athletes keep the "Thug U" image alive. Last night, 19-year-old Frankie Ratcliff, a freshman on the school's storied baseball program was arrested for tr ... More >>

Woman Traveling Home From Miami Drug Trip Caught With Drug Straws in Vagina

​While state laws are trying to put a stop to South Florida's notorious pill mills, the area is still a popular destination for those looking to load up on illicit substances. Kelly Mowery and four others recently made a bit of an OxyContin shopping trip in Miami. While returning to Tennessee by v ... 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 >>

The Escobars, Colombia, and Narco-Soccer

Fumble-Prone Former Dolphin Sammie Smith Gets Civil Rights Back

"Sammie Sucks. Sammie Sucks," chants are long since gone from Miami Dolphin home games, as is the unfortunate and short-lived pro football career of former running back Sammie Smith. But things finally seem to be turning around for one of the most hated Dolphins of all time. After finishing up a sev ... 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 >>

Wachovia Admits It Laundered Millions in Mexican Drug Cash

Wachovia bank executives have admitted that the banking giant laundered millions of dollars for Mexican drug lords between 2003 and 2008, prosecutors announced in Miami this afternoon. DEA photo via Wikimedia Commons​The bank has promised to pay $160 million in fines and penalties and to set ... More >>

Escobar Tales