Crime & Police

A pretty young girl winds up burned to death in a dumpster and all anyone can focus on is the fact that she once appeared in a Playboy video.

Police have identified a body found in a burning trash can as 26-year-old tourist Paula Sladewski.

Editor’s note: Photographer Bill Cooke rode with City of Miami Police to capture the chaos that comes with New Year’s celebrations. Click here to view the entire slide show from that night.At 11:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, David Carpenter, a senior officer with the Miami Police Department, is already…

Police

Albert Gonzalez, the Miami mega-hacker who stole information from tens of millions of credit and debit cards in possibly the biggest case of identity fraud in history, has plead guilty to two county of conspiracy and another charge of wire fraud. Previously, Gonzelez plead guilty to two other related charges…

The case of Carlos Miller started in 2007 while he was on assignment as a photojournalist for a now-defunct website. He took some photos of police, refused their order that he stop, then found himself in succession with his head against concrete, in the back of a police car, a…

Twenty-one-year-old Geraldo Pagano of Orlando was driving his scooter over the wet and rainy 79th Street Causeway just before midnight yesterday when he lost control. He fell to the ground but managed to pick himself up. Then a gray four-door Kia hit him, sending Pagano and the scooter flying into…

Miami resident Albert Gonzalez shocked the world when he was indicted for the largest case of identity fraud in history. Using colorful aliases such as “Soupnazi,” he hacked into the databases of several retail chains and stole information from more than 130 million credit and debit cards. Gonzalez made a plea deal…

For at least the second time this year in Miami, a baby has died after the caregiver left the child in a locked car. Police found a baby in a locked car at 6832 NW Fifth Ave. shortly after noon today. The infant was dead. Police believe the grandmother dropped the child’s…

Ok, so you’re cruising north on the Florida Turnpike. The cops pull you over and you’re freaking out, man, because you’re holding some seriously illicit shit: A cooler full of 232 lobster tails — 167 of which are undersized. Undersized! Alberto Varea, age 54, of Hialeah isn’t the coolest arrestee…

How unalienable is a man’s right to enjoy a delicious Frosty© without getting flattened by two and a half tons of AmericaMobile©? Apparently, pretty freakin’ alienable. This week, Riptide brought you the story of the French professor who claimed he was walking across a Miami Wendy’s parking lot when he…

Palm Beach County circuit judge Krista Marx sat down with The Palm Beach Post and warned that crime, in the words of the paper, “is inexorably moving northward from Miami-Dade like red tide.”Yes, because apparently crime is a mysterious and uncontrollable force of nature that is impossible to talk about in…

From cat killers to back-alley plastic surgeons, the criminals in our fair city make the hustlers of Detroit and Atlanta look, well, not very creative. A couple of months ago, Riptide brought you the story of Roller Thief, the strung-out rollerblading car burglar turned real-life Reno 911 sketch. He broke…

We’re beginning to feel sorry for the public relations department of Miami Gardens’ Florida Memorial University. As this week’s feature story on the violence-plagued school — think shootings, carjackings, home invasions, and a near-riot — went to print, the first reports of a fresh stabbing on campus began to trickle…

The legal saga of five convicted Cuban spies known as the Cuban Five continues today as yet another member has had his sentence reduced.Ramon Labanino, also known as Luis Medina, was originally sentenced to life in a controversial 2001 trial in Miami, but earlier this year, an appeals court threw out…

Miami-Dade Commissioner Carlos Gimenez’s troubled kid, Julio Francisco Gimenez, was arrested after a bar brawl this past Saturday. Actually, he’s not even a kid — he’s a 31-year-old man.Gimenez was at the Sports Exchange, a bar in Coral Gables, watching college football when he got into a heated argument with…

Police across South Florida are on the hunt for a Miami man this morning suspected of gunning down four relatives at a Thanksgiving party in Jupiter last night.​Paul Michael Merhige, a 35-year-old with no significant police record, is suspected of walking into a party packed with 17 family members and…

Miami-Dade is the fourth most dangerous metro-area in the country, according to CQ Press’s annual crime rankings. The rating takes reported incidents of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft into account. Last year, Miami-Dade was ranked seventh and 11th the year before.Though, we’re not entirely sure how…

Defending the pride of the Miami Dolphins to the death is something the current roster hardly seems interested in, but one fan is accused of killing a Dolphins detractor. Though, both the assailant and the victim were already behind bars at the time.The incident took place at South Bay Correctional…

About 200 students are locked inside a gym at University of Miami as we speak, thanks to an alleged BB gun shooter. School President Donna Shalala sent text messages and e-mails around 3 p.m. today asking folks to “stay away from windows.” Students are becoming restless. From inside the gym,…

View Larger MapIn a bizarre coincidence, two men died and another clings to life this morning after separate shootings 15 miles apart at virtually the same time. The deadly hour was 6:30 a.m. One shooting left 43-year-old Conrado Antigua Gallardo dead on the street at 1550 SW 131st Ct.. in…

This week’s feature tells the story of a photographer-turned-pimp, a “mansion” full of prostitutes, and a big (albeit accidental) bust by Miami-Dade police officers.While reporting the story, New Times inherited some unusual files. They included pimp Hugo Gonzalez’s “business” documents, which were as tidy as they were pornographic. (Think naked hooker…