U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Reader Mail: Charlie Crist Should Destroy Rick Scott

Miami Customs Agent Faces Prison Time After Pretending to Be a Diplomat to Impress a Mistress

Nelly's Tour Bus Raided by Texas Cops: 36 Bags of Heroin, 10 Pounds of Weed, Loaded Gun

It's gettin' "Hot in Herre." Last night, as reported by Crossfade's sister blog with the Riverfront Times, Nelly tour bus was raided by cops in Sierra Blanca, Texas. The rapper/actor/non-profit philanthropist's ride was stopped at a border patrol checkpoint. A police dog detected the presence of n ... More >>

Miami Customs Agent Faces Prison After Posing As Diplomat To Woo Irish Girlfriend

Bad idea: Cheating on your wife while working overseas for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Worse idea: Telling your new girlfriend you are a divorced, high-ranking diplomat, when in fact you are a married, low-ranking customs grunt. Incredibly awful idea: Forging diplomatic letters to wow your g ... 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 >>

American Airlines Workers In Puerto Rico Smuggled Thousands of Cocaine Kilos Into Miami

Yesterday, the Drug Enforcement Agency announced the bust of two rings of airport workers based in Puerto Rico who they say smuggled thousands of kilos up and down the east coast, including into Miami and Orlando. The feds indicted 45 people with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and violations of th ... More >>

M.I.A. Customs Agent Indicted for Groping Female Travelers' Breasts

Woah, woah, woah, buddy, who do you think you are? A TSA agent? Sorry, but airport U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Officers have no right to touch passengers against their will.Officer Paulo Morales, 47, was arrested today after being indicted yesterday on charges related to groping female passengers ... More >>

Heroin Lollipops Seized From Sweaty Guatemalan at Airport

​When Rafael Quinones Jimenez arrived in Orlando on a flight from his native Guatemala on Friday, U.S. Customs inspectors noted that he was "very nervous and was sweating profusely." For good reason. When they searched his luggage they found seven pounds of heroin disguised as candy lollipops.So h ... 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.

You Won't Have to Take Your Shoes Off at MIA Anymore -- if You're Special

​With the eventual aim of shortening screening lines and easing some security procedures, the TSA unveiled a new program today at four airports across the country, including Miami International, that allows passengers to go through security checkpoints without taking off their shoes ... More >>

Miami Man Caught Smuggling Cocaine Hidden in Candy Easter Eggs at LAX

​Most peoples' idea of a white Christmas does not involve candy Easter eggs. Then again, Esteban Galtes wasn't planning to celebrate with that wholesome type of snow. The 23-year-old Miami resident was caught trying to smuggle approximately $100,000 worth of cocaine through Los ... More >>

Culture of cruelty: Feds bury Border Patrol abuses of immigrants

800 Pounds of Pot Seized in Boat Two Miles Off Miami

​Rakontur is currently finishing up Square Grouper, their documentary on Miami's pot smuggling heydays, but that's not all in the past. The South Florida US Attorney's Office announced that they recently found a boat just miles off the coast of Miami packed with 800 pounds of pot. Four arrests hav ... More >>

Operation Streamline treats migrants like cattle

Contraband Quesadillas -- Sort Of A Recipe

Lee Klein​Beads of sweat formed on Amir's forehead as he inched his way up the line at U.S. Customs. He had just arrived at M.I.A. from his home in the Netherlands, and if the authorities searched his bag, Amir knew he would be in big trouble. They probably already suspected him of terrorist activ ... More >>

Ayahuasca: Believers call the Amazonian plant a sacrament; the state calls it illegal

Pat Riley Sued for Keeping Land Deal Profits to Himself

Famous for a different kind of suit. ​Heat President Pat Riley has bigger problems this summer than just trying to re-sign guard Dwyane Wade. Riley is being sued for $5.5 million by a real estate broker who says the Hall of Fame coach didn't live up to a promise he made to break him off a pi ... More >>

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

$5.2 Million Worth of Designer Knock-Offs Seized at MIA

​We're pretty sure the ornately logo-ed purse trend has been done with for a while. Now that we're all "recessionistas" ladies who can still afford luxury leather goods prefer to buy expensive bags with the designer brand only noticeable to discerning eyes. Touting around a purse that co ... More >>

Thousands of Fake Viagra Pills Seized, Thousands of Boners Relieved

The lengths men will go to get it hard knows few limits, yet thousands of guys don't have the balls to tell their doctors they can't get it up. So enter the booming illegal Viagra trade, and like so many drugs sold illicitly, you never know if what you're getting is authentic.Today, U ... More >>

Black-Market Cigarettes: Miami's New Vice

The feds say a local man smuggled millions of smokes for terrorists. He's not alone.

MIA Customs Officials Keep Us Safe From Teddy Bear Threat

via Flavouz's flickrTheir eyes were watching eyes. U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Miami International Airport noticed that the glass eyes on a shipment of teddy bears from China were poorly secured, and could be a choking hazard to small children. They sent the bears off for further test ... More >>

Miami Radio Host Wins Release of Cuban Refugees

The World is Yours

Excellent Appalachian Adventure

Letters July 15-21, 2004

The Question That Won't Die

A mild-mannered U.S. Customs inspector is shot to death. Police call it suicide. Friends and family say that’s inconceivable.

Density Turns on the Radio

WLRN grovels; school board makes vote count

MIA: A User's Manual

Is our airport the most user-unfriendly in America? No, just one of four really unhappy landing sites.

Seeing Is Believing

Los Muñequitos de Matanzas show us what we've been missing for 50 years

Kulchurkampf: 365 Days of Pop Music

From trance to hip-hop, there's not much in between

Best Herald Writer

Meg Laughlin

Wiping Out the Spongers

A new crackdown on Biscayne Bay's sponge poachers has netted an entire Cuban subculture

Deadly Cargo

Big payoffs. Gruesome murders. Nosy feds. Life as a cargo handler at MIA just ain't what it used to be.

Miami Logic

Hookers, okay. Scumbags, fine. But forget about hanging a sign that reads "thrift" on Biscayne Boulevard.

Passport to Paradox

The Cuban embargo is supposed to be getting tougher on travelers, but it's just getting weirder

Get Your Foreign Butts Out of Our Convenience Stores!

Want to make Big Tobacco really mad? Just try importing export-only cigarettes

Dope Detective

If it gets you high, chances are that James Hall knows more about it than anyone anywhere

Letters

No Money Down

South Florida fraud investigators find themselves fighting a new form of chicanery: the lease fleece

Taint What You Think

A local authority on money laundering is linked to a banker accused of fraud

Cuba Bound, Part 2

Sailboat captain Dave Shaw runs afoul of U.S. Customs and finds himself up a creek without his canoe

Cuba Bound

Key West to Havana is a grand tradition, a boater's delight, and a lively tourist adventure. Bon voyage!

Guns R Us

You live in Rio de Janeiro and you've got a little problem with an overzealous police force. Your difficulties could be solved with a few hundred assault rifles and a couple of tons of ammo. Welcome to Miami!

Kiss This Deadly

The Mysterious Mexican Gorilla Caper

A notorious animal smuggler. Some eager buyers. A bizarre sting operation. A dark and stormy night. No wonder the jurors could hardly believe what they were hearing.

Dead On Arrival, 119 Times Over

Indonesian crab-eating macaques are favored by medical researchers. But if Miami primate dealer Matthew Block's late-August shipment was bound for the lab, it never got that far.

A Mutt Above

Overheard in a local schoolyard: "I'll trade you a Kirby Puckett rookie card for a Kirby the Cocaine Canine"

Chong Feature

Dirty Money