In this week’s New Times, we report new statistics showing how President Obama’s “Secure Communities” program pulls Miami cops into the deportation game. The program, which runs anyone booked into any Miami-Dade County jail through a national Homeland Security database, has already flagged 8,407 illegal immigrants since January. Critics fear…
What is heroin, you say? Cocaine? Automatic weapons?Try cigarettes. As Western countries hike taxes higher and higher to try to curb smoking, black-market, dirt-cheap smokes are flooding the markets. Some are counterfeits, rolled out by the millions in filthy factories literally buried underground in southern China. Some are legit, smuggled…
A body was found lying on the shoulder of a road near South Miami Heights on Sunday. Police rushed to SW 135th Avenue and 200th Street to respond to a shots-fired call at 6:19 p.m. Upon arrival, officers discovered Fidel Ruz Moreno, 35, lying on the pavement. CBS4 is reporting a dad…
Bernie Madoff is facing 150 years in prison, but that’s nothing compared to the 400-year sentence that could await former Miami businessman Edward Hugh Okun.Not much ink has been spilled locally about Okun, but we’ll bring you up to speed. At some point, Okun, now in his late 50s, met Simone…
Police fatally shot a machete-wielding man who was attacking another man on a northwest Miami street Saturday evening.A Miami-Dade corrections officer summoned a Miami Police officer at 6:35 p.m., after he witnessed a man swinging a machete at another man on NW 12th Street and 12th Avenue, the Miami Herald reported.Both officers…
Bernie Madoff, the West Palm Beach financial demon who ripped off thousands of investors, many in South Florida, has been sentenced to the maximum 150 years behind bars. “I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that. I live in a tormented state now, knowing all…
The arrest affidavit detailing the cops’ case against suspected cat killer Tyler Weinman remains sealed, and CBS4 and the Miami Herald are absolutely livid about it. So much so that the news partners requested a hearing today pressing prosecutors to unseal the documents. CBS4’s Jim DeFede has already done a remarkable job prying out information about…
A 65 year-old man was pistol whipped this morning by two attackers who stole $3, a gold chain and a cellphone during a home invasion, Miami-Dade police said.Thomas Pulido was dragged into his home at 2169 NW 80th St. where the attackers beat him. The Miami Herald reported that Pulido’s…
The Miami-Dade Robbery Bureau are still searching for the man who stole a purse with $15,000 worth of jewelry and cash from a woman at a car rental establishment on Sunday afternoon.Police said, the victim’s husband entered the rental office at approximately 3 p.m. to exchange the vehicle while she…
Miami-Dade Police are investigating the death of two men and one woman found shot dead in a West Kendall townhouse Wednesday night.Police hurried to the Point Lake townhomes at 8 p.m. to respond to a call about gunshots fired at 15315 SW 76th Terr.Upon arrival, officers noticed the front door…
It has been so long since we’ve had a good old-fashion Ponzi scheme indictment down here in Miami. That was until Isaac Niego came along and got busted today.Federal authorites claim Niego defrauded 33 investers in a $2.5 million Ponzi scheme. Niego and an unnamed coconsipirator solicited investments through two…
A taxi driver was shot early this morning as he was working near NW 91st Street and Seventh Avenue.Jacques Milien, 64, was shot multiple times after what appeared to be an armed robbery at 6:15 a.m., Miami-Dade Police spokeswoman Det. Rebeca Perez said. He is in stable condition at Jackson Memorial…
Around 11:20 this morning, a slim black man — about six-foot-one and wearing camouflage pants, a yellow shirt, and a black skull cap — walked into the Wachovia Bank at 160 SW Eighth St. He waited patiently in line, and when he got to a teller, he handed her a…
Coral Gables Police have identified and charged armed robbery suspect Kenneth Maurice Smith, 20, who attempted an escape that led police on a two-hour chase that close U.S. 1 Sunday night.Smith is charged with armed robbery, attempted burglary to a residence, and resisting police without violence.The northbound lanes of South Dixie Highway…
A Miami-Dade Transit supervisor was struck and killed by the Metro Mover late Friday night while inspecting the rails, said Miami-Dade police.Joseph Bryant, 54, was on the tracks of the station at 100 Northeast 5th Street when he was hit at 11:49 p.m. Miami-Dade police are still investigating the cause of the accident…
Four days after being cleared of any wrongdoing in shooting an unarmed tourist, Miami Beach Police Officer Adam Tavss has been involved in another shooting death. The incident reports have not been made public because the fatal shootings are “still under investigation,” police say. Facts though have started to creep…
A Palm Coast man was arrested and charged with first degree murder of a Miami man, on Thursday. Antoin Lennard Eleby, 31, was apprehended by Daytona Beach police at a bus station without incident, Miami-Dade police said. He is charged with fatally shooting Eckerd Pugh, 25, outside of Pugh’s residence at Northwest…
This is almost too much to believe. Just months after news broke that Vince Shlomi, better known as the ShamWow guy, got into a tongue-biting fight with a hooker he met at Louis, comes a report that he was involved in the crash that shut down traffic on the MacArthur Causeway. An…
It’s safe to say: When there’s a big black bag of cash, a decent story almost always follows. Just ask airport novelists. Or Robert De Niro, back when he was in good movies. But as 18-year-old teller Michael Rodriguez learned a couple of rainy Saturdays ago, that stuff’s best saved…
That Horatio Cain has it so easy. All he has to do is connect the dots and run some lab tests on human DNA, but in the case of the Cat Killer, the real life Miami-area police might have to adapt their forensic techniques normally used on humans to animals. While the official…
The Westchester Parishioner busted for a tax fraud scheme struggled with drug abuse, his lawyer Luis Fernandez tells Riptide. Pablo Gehr, 32, of St. Brendan’s Catholic Church, conned over $200,000 from low-income and elderly individuals and members of his church. A judge sentenced him to three years in federal prison…
The Miami-based church parishioner caught swindling thousands from low-income and elderly people — including one blind widow — was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison yesterday. Pablo Gehr, 32, of St. Brendan’s Catholic Church, plead guilty to tax return fraud this past February. He conned over $200,000. His scheme:…
