In October 2012 just outside a pastel-painted Coral Gables apartment building, one of the largest gold heists in Florida history went down. A convicted thief named Raonel Valdez, who was supposed to be wearing a court-ordered GPS device, somehow jacked $2.8 million in gold from courier George Villegas. And within…
For a few hours Friday, Luther Campbell’s rocky relationship with the University of Miami athletic department appeared to be headed off a cliff. Craig Anderson, associate athletic director for compliance, ordered Uncle Luke — who despite recent criticism of the U, still bleeds orange-and-green — to leave the building minutes…
It looks like wax and it’s vaporized on a red-hot disk of titanium. It’s made by forcing butane through pipes packed with marijuana. And for a certain segment of the weed aficionado population, it’s the future of mary jane. Of course, if you don’t know how to make it, it…
James runs his hand along a shelf full of expensive, glistening glass water pipes before grabbing a small, clear one. It has a titanium disk where the bowl is supposed to be. The lanky, droopy-eyed lawn service owner sets it on a table next to a small blowtorch and twists…
On August 6, FBI agents swooped into Sweetwater City Hall, handcuffed Mayor Manuel Maroño, and charged him with bribery. The feds alleged Maroño and business partner Jorge Forte accepted $40,000 in payola from a pair of undercover agents pretending to be corrupt Chicago businessmen aiming to defraud the federal government…
Michael Gongora is a Miami Beach commissioner running for mayor. On his campaign website, the commish touts his corruption-fighting credentials, boldly proclaiming he engineered the dismissal of shady city employees who violated the public’s trust. “Now, thanks to my leadership,” Gongora boasts on his website, “City Hall is more transparent.”…
Meet Josue Pierre, the Rickenbacker Causeway Creeper. The 25-year-old has a skeevy way of trying to pick up women — by groping the most intimate parts of their bodies. Four ladies jogging on the William Powell Bridge of the causeway experienced Pierre’s personal-space-invading mitts the morning of August 13. “If…
Meet Josue Pierre, the Rickenbacker Causeway Creeper. The 25-year-old has a skeevy way of trying to pick up women he doesn’t know; groping the most intimate parts of their bodies. Four ladies jogging the William Powell Bridge along the causeway experienced Pierre’s personal-space-invading mitts the morning of Aug. 13. “If…
Hey there Florida gun owners. Feeling a little more paranoid than usual these days? Don’t trust the government can protect you from potential menaces when you’re catching a flight out of Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, or Miami? The Transportation Security Administration certainly seems to think you’re all freaking out. The airport…
Yesterday, we noted El Nuevo Herald’s scoop about Miami-Dade Police public corruption detectives going HAM on their overtime hours while investigating a quartet of park employees who pocketed a few thousand bucks. According to El Nuevo Herald, the investigators clocked 934 hours of overtime, collecting $58,288 to nab four men…
Two years ago, he serenaded his entrenched opponent, Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower, by having Sexy Sax Man play “Careless Whisper” for her during a city commission meeting. He cut a campaign video enumerating his pledges while slamming shots of booze and declared himself de facto leader of an…
Get this: The national engineering firm in the driver’s seat to oversee Miami-Dade’s $1.6 billion overhaul of the county’s monumentally dilapidated sewer system has a history of violating the Clean Water Act, mishandling radioactive waste, billing for phantom work, and paying kickbacks. In most places, that track record would get…
In early August, Miami-Dade Police made a big hullabaloo about busting four county employees who allegedly pocketed about $3,100 in entrance fees to Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah. Well, now it turns out the bigger thieves were actually the detectives investigating Jamal Sheffield, Charles Simons, Camilo Felipe and Manuel Valdes…
Get this: The national engineering firm in the driver’s seat to oversee Miami-Dade’s $1.6 billion overhaul of the county’s monumentally dilapidated sewer system has a history of violating the Clean Water Act, mishandling radioactive waste, billing for phantom work, and paying kickbacks. In most places, that track record would get…
A man who cashed checks for three women involved in a pair of real estate scams that ripped off 15 victims recently pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts of racketeering, grand theft, and uttering a forged instrument. For his crimes, Johnny Bou Nassar will get two years of house arrest…
When Sweetwater Mayor Manuel Maroño and his alleged bagman, lobbyist Jorge Forte, were arrested in early August on federal bribery charges, the FBI alleged the duo also collected referral fees for attempting to recruit other South Florida mayors into their scheme. Those elected officials, whom the FBI has not identified,…
Call it Farenheit 305. Ever since he released a proposed budget plan that would have shuttered 22 libraries across Miami-Dade earlier this summer, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been trying to put out a fire of his own making. The backlash prompted him to find a way to keep those…
In the days after his August 6 arrest on federal bribery charges, Michael Pizzi walked around shellshocked and despondent. In a blockbuster moment for public corruption fighters, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had nabbed the Miami Lakes mayor; his counterpart in Sweetwater, Manuel Maroño; and two lobbyists allegedly accepting payoffs…
Ominous, bass-heavy beats rumble the wall speakers inside a two-story house that’s been converted into a music recording studio. SpaceGhostPurrp slowly nods along, pausing to sip from a cup of Gatorade mixed with prescription cough syrup and to puff on a blunt stuffed with California dank. Dressed in a red…
Days following his August 6 arrest on federal bribery charges, Michael Pizzi was walking around shell-shocked and despondent. In a blockbuster moment for public corruption fighters, the Federal Bureau of Investigations had nabbed the Miami Lakes mayor, his counterpart in Sweetwater Manuel Maroño, and two lobbyists allegedly accepting payoffs in…
For at least three months, John Renfrow, director of the Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department, knew about the $18.5 million fine CH2M Hill had to pay the federal government to avoid being prosecuted for time card fraud. Yet Renfrow didn’t stop the Colorado-based firm from bidding on a lucrative contract…
A pungent odor permeates an empty mosaic-tiled room inside a shuttered motel at 304 N. Krome Ave. in downtown Homestead. Mildew seeps through the walls. “Before I owned this place, it was a haven for crack addicts and prostitutes,” says the 43-year-old owner, Ernesto Perez, who bought the place for…
